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Subscribe to RSSAn Italian court will decide if Francesco Schettino, the captain of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship, should face a full trial next year for the deaths of 32 people. NBC's Claudio Lavanga reports.
GROSSETO, Italy -- The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that crashed into an Italian reef appeared in court Monday to hear the evidence against him, while hundreds of passengers who survived the deadly shipwreck and the families of those who died in it showed up just "to look him in the eye."
The case of Francesco Schettino, 51, was of such enormous interest that a theater had to be turned into a courtroom in the Tuscan city of Grosseto to accommodate all those who had a legitimate claim to be at the closed-door hearing over the disaster.
As dozens of experts, lawyers and prosecutors packed the building, all eyes were on Schettino, who returned to Tuscany for the first time since his arrest to, in his own words, “Face my accusers.”
In the next few days, Schettino, the eight other people accused, and the many survivors and families of victims, will learn if he will face charges over the deaths of 32 people after his ship run aground off Giglio island on Jan. 13.
Schettino is accused of manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning ship while passengers and crew were still aboard. He denies the accusations and has not been charged. Any trial is unlikely to begin before next year.
“The sooner we can resolve it, the sooner the victims can get on with their lives, they can put this behind them. ... We are anxious to do that, but not so anxious to compromise on our will to change the industry for better standards,” John Arthur Eaves, Jr., an Alabama-based lawyer representing several American survivors of the disaster, told NBC News.
Monday’s hearing was the first and most important in a preliminary trial, aimed at establishing who should be indicted over the disaster.
Over the next few days experts, who were appointed at an earlier hearing in March, will present their analysis of the data retrieved from the black box, audio recordings and other on-board equipment.
The hearing is off limits to the media, and the only way to learn what is happening inside is through lawyers and witnesses who emerge from the theater during breaks.
Dramatic opening
Schettino himself has become a lightning rod for international disdain for having left the ship before everyone was evacuated.
As befitting a star attraction, the captain arrived Monday at the makeshift courthouse through the back door in a car with darkened windows.
Costa Concordia captain admits he was 'distracted' by phone call
"Schettino looked like he just walked out of a fashion magazine. He was dressed in a black suit, black tie, and was very tanned. He didn't betray any emotion, and took many notes,” Eaves told NBC.
Even the weather added to the sense of drama.
Codacons via Getty Images
In this handout image, data from the Costa Concordia's black box reveals the moment when Capt. Francesco Schettino said "let's leave the ship" in the moments after the cruise liner collided with rocks in Grosseto, Italy.
on October 15, 2012 in Grosseto, Italy. (Photo by Laura Lezza/Getty Images)
A massive storm, nicknamed Cleopatra by Italian meteorologists, hit Grosseto a couple of hours after the hearing began, dumping rain on members of the media waiting outside.
A group of German survivors said Schettino was seen biting his nails, and another witness claimed to have seen him shaking hands with another survivor.
"We want to look him in the eye to see how he will react to the accusations," said survivor Michael Liessen, 50, who was attending with his wife.
Schettino is one of nine people facing charges, although eyewitnesses, leaked audio and video recordings, a pre-trial report and even the liner’s owners, Costa Crociere (a subsidiary of Miami-based Carnival), appeared to put the blame squarely on him.
Wider fault?
However, Eaves, the American lawyer, suggested the fault may lie wider.
"It was just said in court that musicians on board had more safety training than other crew members," Eaves told NBC.
Costa Concordia cruise ship captain says sacking unfair
“We are not going to save lives if we don’t change the standards in the whole industry, not only of this particular captain,” he added.
Remo Casilli / Reuters
The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers, ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy killing 32 people - including two Americans.
It is alleged Schettino was in command when he steered the gigantic ship too close to Giglio coastline, allegedly to perform a maritime salute to grant a favor to the ship’s head master, who was originally from the island.
The Concordia hit a reef, tearing a 160-ft. gash in her hull, taking in water and eventually running aground yards from the island’s port.
Video taken by passengers at the time showed scenes of chaos and confusion as the Costa Concordia started to list heavily.
In the intervening months, Schettino has sought to restore his reputation and set the record straight by giving his version of events.
His strategy has not met with widespread approval.
An angry member of an Italian consumer association told NBC News it would be raising a formal objection to Schettino’s presence in court.
“We are losing sight of the victims of this tragedy, but they could line the pockets of the shamed captain,” the member said.
Complete Europe coverage on NBCNews.com
Many questions
Expert evidence will have to address many questions, among them:
Did Schettino make a personal and fatal mistake in taking the ship too close to the island, or should, as he claims, the blame be shared with other crew members?
Six months after the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster, some of the survivors say that they have learned the cruise industry has a "lack of oversight." Hundreds of survivors are challenging the settlements offered to them and calling for an overhaul of the industry. Rock Center's Harry Smith reports.
Did Schettino voluntarily abandon the ship hours before all passengers were evacuated?
Did he delay the call to abandon the ship, further endangering passengers?
Did he really save hundreds of lives by steering the ship as close as possible to the coast, as he claims, guided by a “divine hand”?
A pre-trial report, leaked to Italian media weeks before the trial, places much of the blame on Schettino.
Costa Concordia disaster spawns shipwreck tourism for Italian island
The 270-page report, compiled by maritime experts appointed by the court, reveals that the captain abandoned the Costa Concordia hours before the last of the passengers had reached safety and was slow in issuing the order to abandon ship and alerting port authorities.
But the experts -- two admirals and two engineers -- also note that evacuation drills had not been undertaken by all passengers on the ship and not all crew members understood Italian, the operating language of the liner.
“You find a consistent pattern of a lack of discipline on crew training, on the design of the vessel, on the communication problems. They go back to standards that were set up by Carnival in the United States. This captain made a horrible mistake, but we are not going to save lives if we don’t change the standards in the whole industry, not only of this particular captain,” Eaves said.
Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com
An Indonesian helmsman, for instance, failed twice to understand orders, veering to the right instead of the left as he was told by Schettino, who joked he should pay closer attention or “we will go on the rocks,” only minutes before they dram aground.
A local newspaper said Monday the captain’s lawyers told the judge and prosecutors to “consider the position of the helmsman.”
Schettino, they seem to suggest, was not the only one to blame.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
The captain is ALWAYS to blame. He is in charge. He is in charge of the crew.
1. (Transport / Nautical Terms) the person in charge
of and responsible for a vessel
Captains make a lot of money because they are in charge of every person on the vessle. If there is anyone to point the finger at, it most definitely would be him.
Gross negligence is an understatement.
Much would have been overlooked IF THE CAPTAIN WOULD HAVE STAYED WITH THE SHIP. At least where the captain was involved. ( which is the entire incident)
Amazing we have the ability to float and fix this ship.
ALSO Amazing motivation when billions of dollars are at risk. hahahahaha
So correct............I always blame Capt. Crunch when my cereal gets soggy, Captain Morgan when I wake up with a hang over and Captain America whenever the Nazi's do something bad.
This never would have happened with Capt. Picard in the chair. And he would never put the blame on the crew. And no way would he not be the last man on board.
Captain Solo would have blamed the inadequate training of his wookie crewmembers.
But then he would have led a daring blaster fight to free them from the courtroom.
why are there no American cruise lines, if it were a American flag vessel, it must have 65% American z card seaman, a American trained Captain, a minimum voyage pay, can not charge the crew for food or lodging, helmsman must have been certified by American maritime standards; foreign flag vessels, none of the above, a dozen different languages, all working for tips, very low slave wages, no seaman training. (not including, British, Norwegian, or Scandinavian flag vessels, they are manned by trained seaman).
saxon you pretty much answered your own questions, but I am not sure a few items aren't a stretch...
The last U.S. flag passenger liner was, I think, the SS United States which was withdrawn from service in 1969. U.S. law imposes higher standards and costs for U.S. flagged ships, which is why we have flags of convenience, typically Panama, Liberia or the Bahamas. Nobody would deny that Carnival is essentially a U.S. corporation, but all their ships are flagged somewhere else to avoid U.S. law. The registering countries have low ship standards and make a tidy national income through registration fees.
From what I've read, there seems to be a large amount of evidence against Schettino.
Not only was he responsible for the decisions made on the bridge, but he's also shown an incredible lack of remorse and ownership for the tragedy.
I have a prediction, and I admit to hoping it comes true: because the victims were multinational (including some from the US) I think Italy will be under tremendous pressure to bring charges against him. In most cases politics in justice is a bad thing; not so here.
However justice is served, the victims deserve no less than a fair and full trial.
P.S. SS Independence was the last...not the United States. Suffice to say, nobody registers their ships here if they can avoid it.
If the helmsman can't understand the language of command, why would the Captain allow him control of the ship? Cheap labor, save money, enhance profit?
how refreshing that a theater was converted into a courtroom, unlike in the united states where courtrooms are converted into theatres almost daily! :)
Dam* Gtouch. They are collapsing you whenever they can find your comments. Must be a lot of people mad today because their football teams lost. Or just Monday in general and they don't like jokes.
@BP the grape
Surely you mean Captain Kirk. No depends wearing individual should ever be referred to as captain of the Enterprise.
Schettino is without a doubt responsible, and not just because he was the captain. The ship had a preprogrammed course that it was to follow that was set into the autopilot. Only Schettino had the authority to deviate from that course. He was the one who made the dangerous decision to override the programed course and take the ship closer to the Island. From the minute he disengaged the autopilot and took over command on the bridge he became responsible for everything that happened. If he was having problems with the helmsman he could easily have had him replaced with another crew member. Add to all of this the fact that this worthless piece of crap abandoned the ship while passengers and crew were still aboard, and I have no sympathy for him what-so-ever. He deserves to go to prison for the deaths of the passengers not just because he caused the accident, but because he failed in his duties to oversee getting everyone off the stricken ship safely. Also, the heroic act he claims of bringing the ship in closer to the island to ground it actually made things worse. By bringing the ship in parallel to the coast he virtually assured that the ship would roll on it's side by placing one side of the ship in shallower water than the other. Had he brought the ship in perpendicular to the coast there was a much greater chance of the ship remaining upright longer, which wold have given more time to safely launch lifeboats. Also, Schettino failed to recognize the severity of the situation and did not order the evacuation of the ship in a timely manner. In fact, he waited so long that in reality there never was an order to abandon ship given over the ship's public address system. The only reason teh evacuation started when it did was some crew members saw the situation getting worse and took it on themselves to start getting the passengers off. Schettino himself never gave an order to abandon ship, other than to himself and the people on the bridge with him. This guy is a complete disgrace as a ship's captain and deserves a lengthy prison sentence for his actions and inactions surrounding this tragedy.
That picture of the massive cruise liner on its side still amazes me. The enormity of what happened is stunning.
Score another one for Claudio Lavanga and the NBC News team for their lack of proofreading! Here I've been thinking all these years that a dram is a noun meaning a unit of weight or currency only to learn that is a verb. Gosh, all you guys have to do with your time is write news articles using correct spelling and grammar, but you can't even do that. Maybe you should put down your cellphones and stop texting.
I know spellchecker...........they are collapsing my jokes not any political stuff, bad language or the old proverbial being rude and inconsiderate. Oh well at least it seems a like a lot of folks like my jokes.
hang CAPT'N CRUNCH !especially if he was drinking Captain Morgan behind the wheel ,then fled the scene like"Chicken of the Sea"
Well, it's nice to see that he's had time to work on his suntan but that mullet in progress really needs to go.
The Filipino's are to blame.
It's interesting to note, that until the Titanic sunk, and a review was made of everything which contributed to its sinking was made, that changes were made to regulations, training of crews, manning the radio all night, enough life boats for passengers, etc were finally set in place.
Yes, the captain in that case also was at fault for the high death toll and the accident itself. In both cases however, there was a basic attitude of the shipping lines which contributed to the accident and deaths in the end. Even if the Captain had stayed with the ship in this recent event, the fact some passengers didn't know the drill, crews didn't know the proper language, panicked and contributed to the death toll. Once more there is a systemic problem only now with this cruise line needing addressing.
nope! only CAPT'N CRUNCH is to blame as is COSTA CRUISES,they don't pay enough wages to those poor filipinos in the first place
Whats up with fatty just sitting in the back of the already half submerged kayak?Looks like the skinny dude is seaking an illegal mexican across the rio grande
The Italians haven't had a competent sailor from their shores since Columbus sailed for Spain. He found Espanola and started the slaughter of millions of Native Americans. Way to go Captain Kangaroo-La, you'll soon be working for Guido and the Mafia, paddling a Gondola around some park singing a sweet melody to some un-suspecting women that will get impregnated and name-it Alphonso whose only recourse will be, I didn't do that, did I. What a lying piece of Catholic Art Work. Maybe the Pope can help him hide the truth, or maybe make him a SAINT next John Paul (the pedophiles best friend) we'll teach those GAYS as long as they are the Holy Fathers Church's Priest. May God have Mercy on those innocent Drowning Victim's.
Hey Robert; Your comment reflects how ignorant and bigoted you are- I hope foreigners don't judge all Americans by your comments.
Robert Buck.....I can just picture you.....lifelong resident of Hillbilly County's finest trailer park, unemployed, trailer badly under water, never left Hillbilly County once in your life, braincell count devastated by 9 generations of inbreeding in the Buck clan......best I can hope for you is that you will soon commit an act of supreme stupidity and earn yourself a Darwin Award (google it in the likely event you have never heard of Darwin Awards).
He found Espanola huh? ;-)
Espanola, yes.....lol......see below for more wisdom from Uncle Buck......
Gross negligence is an understatement.
Much would have been overlooked IF THE CAPTAIN WOULD HAVE STAYED WITH THE SHIP. At least where the captain was involved. ( which is the entire incident)
Amazing we have the ability to float and fix this ship.
ALSO Amazing motivation when billions of dollars are at risk. hahahahaha
The buck stops with the Captain. Maybe the helmsman was deficient. If so, it is up to the Captain to see that he is brought up to full proficiency or replace him with someone else. If the crew wasn't adequately trained in life boat drills, then the Captain needs to get them up to compliance. In mitigation, maybe Schettino successfully grounded the ship on the rocks, preventing the ship from sinking completely, and thus reducing the number of fatalities. Nevertheless, he must bear the burden for the initial grounding which set into motion the chain of events which followed. The man isn't evil, but he was negligent.
The captain is responsible. PERIOD. If he tells someone to turn to port and he turns starboard and runs aground, the captain is still responsible. If the ship takes on a river pilot/port pilot and the river pilot takes charge and runs the ship aground, the captain is responsible. If a meteor comes out of outer space and hits the ship, the captain is responsible.
PERIOD.
It's the captain. The captain can blame anyone he wants, but it will always come back to the captain. He is in charge. the crew does not 'vote' on which way the ship should go, the captain says which way it should go. If the crew made errors, that is to bad, but it still comes back to the captain. It is really pretty simple.
News flash...obama said it caused by a youtube video that NO one has seen!!!!
I suppose it's obama's fault that the dinosaurs went extinct too right?
@ Ryan,
Why would you give this troll even the time of day?
I sailed on the MSC Fantasia from Barcelona last month. It is similar in that the chief language of the ship is Italian with Spanish French German and English also considered a language of the ship. The problem may be that the crew being from many different countries have only English as a common language. If you listen to two people speak english that have two different languages as their first language, you see confusion on their faces. The Italians I met on the ship did not speak English well. This whole accident may have been prevented with ensuring that key people understand each other in whatever language is best!! The ship I sailed picked up passengers at every port so there was never a time when everyone was new to the ship. Nevertheless, there was NO announcement when we had our disaster meeting prior to our leaving our home port, you had to rely on reading the cruisenewspaper. Of course the sailings all went smoothly.
Carnival will get dragged into this sooner or later. Were profits put ahead of proper training (oh my, first time that's ever happened)? Was a communication issue on the bridge the capatin's fault or the fault of the hiring practices of Carnival? Not trying to support/tear down the captain here, but in his position you work with what your employer has provided. Imagine if he had postponed departure because he wasn't comfortable with the crew? Job over. Next captain please (one who is a "team player"). I agree that ultimtely the accident is primarily on him, but certainly not his sole burden to bear. However, no excuse for not being the last one to leave.
By Maritime law, company practices aside, the captain is responsible for his staff. If he knew there was a communication issue, he should not have left port until it was corrected. That is his legal responsibility and no company "rule" can override him. It is just like if a pilot says that he is grounding a plane until something is fixed. Legally, it can not be flown at that point until it is fixed. The company can not make the pilot nor anyone else fly that plane.
Obama said it was All bush's fault!!! No need to take responsibility for your own actions!!
And I thought it was the cabin boy on sub-deck 23-glad you cleared that up....
The captain is responsible for everything that happened. He is the master of the ship and has final say over everything that happens. He claims he was not responsible, because he was supposedly entertaining a mystery blonde in his cabin when the boat mysteriously swerved close inshore. That was also supposedly his decision to 'showboat' as a favor for a crew member who had family ashore. Coming into port, the captain is supposed to be on the bridge of the ship giving every necessary order to dock the ship safely. He was NOT THERE. Whatever happened after the ship struck the rock and began to sink was also the captain's responsibility, and he will answer for everything that did or did not happen, whether is was supposed to happen or not. He's a little weasel who was showing off for his 'mysterious guest' and screwed up.
The ship was not coming into port. It was merely passing this harbor and came to close.
The Captain is in charge. The buck stops with the captain.If the crew is not properly trained the captain is in charge.Only been on one cruise,Holland America,Seattle to Alaska, good crew fun trip,we had a life boat drill within a few hours of getting on board.Hit a storm Captain changed the trip a little to avoid the most dangerous part of the storm,took us to a place that was not on our schedule but was a very good choice given the weather we would have hit if we had stayed with our original schedule.Maybe sailing from an American port made a difference,but that proves that a good Captain will do what is best for the comfort and safety of the ship and passengers.
This is the deal:
1). The Captain is THE RESPONSIBLE PARTY FOR THIS TRAGEDY AND LOSS OF LIFE.
2). The people that lost their lives are gone - their family and friends need to get over it. No punishment will bring any body back. No answers will fill the void. Think about the joy you shared with your lost loved ones, smile and move on.
3). Figuring out what happened and making changes to insure it never happens again is the most important thing that can come out of this.
4). The captain has shown little if any remorse and taken no responsibility - he should not have been the captain and should be punished appropriately.
I hope the court proceedings do not drag on forevever. And I am interested in the salvadge operation - how, how much, what can be salvaged.
Exactly, I couldn't have said it better.
What gets me besides the series of errors, if yes, the captain shows no remorse at all.
Can't agree more, it is the captain, no matter who screwed up on the punishment end.
As far as financial liability, it sounds like some pressures to "get underway" and teach safety class later from company could leave them wide open too. Additionally, the captain relies on company to hire and train staff properly. Unfortunately, if their safety record has been good, people start getting lax untile something like this happens.
The Helmsman should have been reprimanded by the captain the first time he failed.
As far as the Captain abandoning ship, that is flipping unbelievable and unforgivable. He should never, ever captain again.
...
The passengers are clearly at fault.
They all congregated on one side of the ship and forced the ship to list and strike the rocks.
What could the captain do?
...
I am trying to petition the Chinese government to get the populous to all jump up and down at the same time in order to push the earth further away from the sun. Volare, no more global warming.
anyone tell me how many it will take to accomplish this. Would hate to push us into another ice age. Well, I can always blame bush if it does.
He was trying to impress some people in the ships command center. He was trying to impress people on shore. Who would be so important to cause an intellgent man to go stupid? Ask us Native Americans what we think of you Italians, England's murders, the Irish and the rest of you Europeans. The Mafia exist in the good old USA, and alot of people tolerate their behavior because they are smart enough to stay in business. The Italians were supportive of governments responsible for the death of MILLIONS of innocent people of the world. American soldiers died liberating those countries. Yes I don't forget the deaths of good Americans that wear Military uniforms that are sent to countries to educate the stupid. I've earned that right, and the right to remind not to be prejudice. If that man where to be punished for killing one person because he was stupid I could understand the Manslaughter charge. Did you notice that the reporter of this story failed to mention how many deaths this fool caused? And foriegners who don't understand satire probably don't read news about innocent deaths, whether its American Military or Vacationers dying because of Mega-corporations hiring the cheapist and the stupid. If I insulted your sensitive nature, I appologize, I didn't kill all those innocents and then abandoned my ship. I didn't minimize their deaths. The POPE"S did protect the PEDOPHILES, and are trying to make this ignorance a SAINT. bumer!!!!!
The only thing you insulted was your third-grade English textbook.
Take a deep breath-Nurse Ratchet will be right in with Mr. Happy.
A multi-language crew, including a helmsman who couldn't communicate with the captain.
No emergency drill planned until the next day.
Confused passengers are crew, pretty much helpless.
Death.
As IF I'd ever want to go on a cruise before, this has sealed the deal. Being on a tin can with 4,000 of my new best friends sounds like sheer hell.
"guided by a 'divine hand'?"
OK - so not only is he criminally incompetent - he's trying to claim an insanity defense?
I read he's trying to get his job back, with back pay, since he says he didn't do anything wrong. As far as him using his great expertise to steer the ship near shore - there was no steering. He had no engines, no power - it was dumb luck that the wind blew the ship that direction.
there was something worst to happend ,but russian spy told captain what to do .
That greasy weasel needs to be in prison..... He is a coward.
The captain of the ship like the pilot of an airliner is responsible for the safety of his passengers. Any problems with the communication between him and the flunkey's below is his responsibility. If you want to lump the owner of the vessel in there fine but you can spread responsibility around to everyone but the victims. The captain probably doesn't have the money to compensate the victims whereas the owner Carnival has deep pockets and has the responsibly of training personnel and maintaining the ship.
After reading the transcript of the conversation between him and the coast guard during the rescue I wanted to hit him in the chops. Even if you ignore the wreck itself and the blame there. He was the captain. He abandoned ship with his officers and left his passengers to die. He even refused to go back on board when directed to by the commander in charge of the rescue. They left nobody on board to coordinate rescue with the coast guard.
They may have even been able to save some of the dead if it were not for him. Had the crew who knew the ship gone through the ship looking for passengers instead if running they may have saved some. Had they coordinated the evacuation with the coast guard they may have saved some. Instead, They just left them to die. Just sickening.
I'm not a violent person, & I'm a devout believer in peaceful resolutions. However, in this case I get the overwhelming urge to take this guy out back behind the building & B-slap him until he capsizes & sinks.
Tatoo an"I" on his face for imbecile.
Put him in one of the flooded compartments where people died, then take away the breating gear - let him know for the last few minutes of his life, what the people felt as a result of his stupidity.
No, don't kill him. He doesn't deserve that mercy.
I agree with Gouranga -- the very worst was abandoning the ship, leaving passengers to fend for themselves, and some to be trapped and to die. The rescuers who came out from the local coast guard, were unable to believe the captain was not on the ship. The Deputy Mayor of the town, who was not a seaman, was brave enough to go out and help with the rescue. Some of the real heroes should be thanked. There were brave passengers, some crew, and locals, who did a lot.
Put yourself in his shoes. "I know I already lost my job. This paperweight gave up floating 30 minutes ago. Ninety percent of the passengers and crew are off already. I make under $200 K per year. I can stay on the boat and maybe die, or fall into that conveniently close lifeboat"
The going down with the ship thing is a romantic azz dream. Guess I should never be a boat captain. How many failed CEOs bail on a golden parachute every year?