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Italian Cruise Ship Captain Arrested After Deadly Wreck |
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Saturday, 14 January 2012 |
The Italian captain of the cruise ship
that ran aground -- killing three people and injuring 20 more -- was
arrested late Saturday and is being investigated for manslaughter and
abandoning ship, said a local prosecutor in Grosetto, Italy.The
captain, Francesco Schettino, had been earlier interviewed by
investigators in Porto Santo Stefano about what happened when the
4,200-passenger Costa Concordia struck rocks in shallow water off
Italy's western coast, said officer Emilio Del Santo of the Coastal
Authorities of Livorno.Authorities were looking at why the ship
didn't hail a mayday during the accident near the Italian island of
Giglio on Friday night, officials said.
The ship is owned by Genoa-based
Costa Cruises."At the moment we can't exclude that the ship had
some kind of technical problem, and for this reason moved towards the
coast in order to save the passengers, the crew and the ship. But they
didn't send a mayday. The ship got in contact with us once the
evacuation procedures were already ongoing," Del Santo said prior to the
announcement of the arrest."Fear and panic are comprehensible in
a ship long over 300 meters with over 4000 passengers," Del Santo said.
"We can confirm that the ship has a breach on the hull of about 90
meters, and that the right side of it is completely under water."The three persons dead were two French tourists and a crew member from Peru,
Port authorities in Livorno said.Giuseppe
Orsina, a spokesman with the local civil protection agency, said 43 to
51 persons were missing, though authorities are reviewing passenger
lists to confirm the exact figure."These people could be still on the island of Giglio, in private houses or in hospitals," Orsina said.
Source: cnn.com
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