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THE SEARCH FOR two bodies still missing 20 months after Italy’s Costa Concordia cruise ship tragedy has begun off the island of Giglio, Italy’s civil protection agency said.
Salvage workers who pulled the doomed vessel upright from its watery grave last week in an unprecedented operation “have ensured the ship is secure and given the green light to begin the search,” a spokeswoman said.
“Specialist divers from the coastguard, fire brigade and police have begun scouring the area between the righted ship and the land,” she added.
The team is looking for the corpses of Italian passenger Maria Grazia Tricarichi and crew member Russel Rebello, whose bodies were not recovered after the nighttime disaster on January 13, 2012, which left 32 people dead.
They will also be assessing how best to carry out the search within the wrecked liner if necessary.
Franco Gabrielli, head of Italy’s civil protection agency, had earlier said that the righting of the ship gave searchers a chance to access parts of the vessel previously off limits.
Workers inspect the ship after it was lifted upright. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
“When the ship toppled, corridors became deep wells. Now she is upright, we can get to areas previously off limits,” he said, adding that there would likely “still be areas it is difficult to access and search.”
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The Concordia had 4,229 people from 70 countries on board when it struck rocks just off Giglio after veering sharply towards the island in a bravado sail-by allegedly ordered by its captain, Francesco Schettino.
It lurched over onto one side during a chaotic and delayed evacuation, throwing terrified people into the freezing sea and preventing some lifeboats from deploying.
(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
On trial
Dubbed “Captain Coward” and “Italy’s most hated man” in the tabloids for apparently abandoning ship while passengers were still on board, Schettino is currently on trial in the Tuscan town of Grosseto.
On Monday, he told the court that the ship’s Indonesian helmsman was to blame for causing the accident, after misunderstanding a crucial order.
His defence team also asked permission for experts to go aboard the wreckage to determine whether technical problems contributed to the disaster, after reports that some safety mechanisms failed to function, aggravating the situation.
Schettino, who is on trial for manslaughter and abandoning ship, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Don’t know of we will ever get the truth about the Captain and what his motives were ? It seems crazy that this man was ever trusted with so many lives and such an expensive ship.
John,
There is no way of knowing someone’s cowardice until courage is put to the test. What makes this individuals cowardice even more despicable is his attempts to cover up and to lay blame elsewhere. His actions at the time may have been influenced by panic, fear but those since are calculated. The book should be thrown at him.
I agree Steve what I really meant was how he got in the position in the first place. I’m not by any means looking for justification of the incident itself. I’ve been reading up about him and he certainly had a chequered past which I found incredible that he was entrusted with such a responsibility. But perhaps it’s insensitive of me to bring this up right now.
I don’t think it’s insensitive, its a year and a half since it happened and questions like that certainly need to begin getting answered. I really hope they find those bodies to bring closure too.
Ok John understood I haven’t read on his background like most I just assumed that the lines owners would have done checks etc if however he has a ( as you say and I have no reason to and don’t doubr you) chequered past then obviously deeper probing is required and the question answered was he suitable as you say
Of course he did. Absolutely no need for this comment we all know that he fell in the lifeboat just as we all know the Italian Coastguard made it up about telling him, e it 3 times, to get back and stay on board.
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