Princess Chatter

The wife of Francesco Schettino, the captain who capsized the Costa Concordia cruise ship insisted that her husband "was not a monster" but admitted that he had once been fined for taking a motorboat too close to the coast.

"Our shared passion is canoeing – to paddle together you have to be in symphony, which is what Francesco and I are," she said. "But we got fined once, because we took a little motorboat too close to the coast."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9036390/Costa-Concordia-captains-wife-says-Schettino-not-a-monster.html

"Since the Concordia accident, several Italian newspapers have published photos from passengers that appear to show some of the cruise line’s vessels sailing close to islands or picturesque bays such as Amalfi and the island of Procida.

Ron Starzman, managing director of Watershed Management Corp. in New York, said he was aboard Costa Crociere’s Deliziosa cruise ship in September 2010 when it came close to the island of Ponza, adjacent to Rome. “The ship rotated 180 degrees, sounded the horn several times and eventually pulled out, narrowly missing some shoals” by less than 100 meters, he said by e-mail.

Costa Crociere told Bloomberg News in a Jan. 22 e-mail that while a “touristic navigation” five miles from the coast was planned for the Concordia on its Jan. 13 cruise, it was up to the captain to ensure the safety of the route. Foschi said Jan. 16 that the only time he was aware that one of his company’s ships had been allowed to sail close to Giglio was Aug. 9-10, 2011.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-24/italy-urged-to-curb-cruise-ship-routes-after-accident.html

"Italian magistrates will be asked to investigate claims that Costa Cruises, owner of the Concordia ocean liner which ran aground off the Italian coast 11 days ago, tried to cover up a similar incident in 2005, when their Fortuna vessel allegedly struck rocks near Sorrento.

Roberto Cappello, who was working as an official photographer for the company at the time, said that the Fortuna appeared to hit rocks during a close approach to the coast near the southern port in May 2005. He said photographs he took showing the listing cabins and damage to the vessel were confiscated by company officials. His allegations will this week be passed to magistrates investigating the Concordia disaster, in which 32 people are feared to have died."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/costa-cruise-hit-rocks-in-2005--and-firm-tried-to-cover-it-up-6293683.html

"A WOMAN reported missing by a Hungarian family in Italy's Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster in fact died three years ago, the Hungarian foreign ministry says."

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/family-lies-about-relative-on-italys-costa-concordia-cruise-ship/story-e6frfku0-1226252385026

"The captain of the Costa Concordia was distracted by guests he had invited onto the bridge in the crucial moments before his cruise liner rammed into rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio, one of the ship's senior officers has claimed.

Silvia Coronica, the vessel's third officer, also told investigators that Francesco Schettino panicked in the aftermath of the crash, rushing "from one part of the bridge to the other".

In the 10 minutes before the collision, he was seem chatting on the bridge with one of the ship's pursers and its head waiter, who had been asked up to the bridge to watch the liner perform a nautical 'fly-by' past his home island.

"The people who came up to the bridge with Schettino were disturbing the ship's navigation," Ms Coronica told investigators.

"The maitre d'hotel was chatting, disturbing the steering, with a consequent impact on concentration."

The ship was travelling at 15 knots as it steamed to within 150 yards of Giglio's coast – too fast for such a delicate operation, the officer added.

The evidence given to investigating judges also revealed scenes of panic down in the engine room, as water began to gush in through the hole torn by a huge lump of granite that was broken off from by the force of the impact.

"Descending down a stairway into deck B, I opened the door and I saw the tear in the hull and the water that was coming in. In the space of two minutes it was completely flooded," said Alberto Fiorito, the engine room's duty officer. "I opened the door to the main electrical room but there was already nearly two metres of water."

He was being interviewed by an Italian television network when a smartly-dressed middle-aged blonde woman employed by Costa Cruises swept into the lobby, ordered him not to do any more interviews, and whisked him away.

When he was interviewed by police in the nearby town of Orbetello several hours later, the computer was no longer with him.

Costa Cruises denied that its employee had obtained the laptop. "After contacting the person involved, Costa Cruises categorically denies that it has received anything at all from Capt Schettino," the company said in a statement."

(and)

"The huge quantities of food that the vessel was carrying – it was at the start of a week-long Mediterranean cruise and had on board more than 4,000 passengers and crew – was rotting and creating a terrible smell."

"Victims' groups and compensation lawyers are now looking at comments made by the Costa Cruises chief executive, Pier Luigi Foschi, to the Corriere Della Sera newspaper, in which he said: "He [Schettino] may have the odd little character problem, although nothing has ever been reported formally. He was seen as being a little hard on his colleagues. He liked to be in the limelight."

Last night, Carlo Rienzi, the president of Italy's national consumer group Codacons, said: "These comments [by Mr Foschi] will form part of the basis for our class action." Codacons is seeking a minimum of €10,000 (£8,300) compensation for all passengers.

Kendall Carver, president of the US-based International Cruise Victims group, said: "It's astonishing that company officials were aware of these 'character problems' but allowed him to have responsibility for over 4,000 people."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/owners-of-stricken-vessel-admit-captain-had-character-problem-6293221.html

"The suggestion of clandestine passengers raises the possibility that either a crew member or a passenger smuggled a friend on board the ship. Passengers might have been invited on board by a crew member at the last minute," said Francesca Maffini, Gabrielli's spokesman.

Another possibility is that some crew members were not registered properly because they were working on the ship illegally. Many of the crew were from India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines."

http://www.theprovince.com/Firm+encouraged+sailpasts+Costa+captain+insists/6036349/story.html

The company, Costa Cruises, a division of Carnival Cruise Lines, denied Sunday that any unregistered passengers would have been on the ship and that it had condoned the close approach to this Tuscan resort island, where the 950-foot ship struck a rock on Jan. 13.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/costa-concordia-may-have-had-unregistered-passengers/articleshow/11599372.cms

"In the newspaper interview he (Schettino) gave last year, he was asked about what impact the sinking of the Titanic had on perceptions of ship safety at the time.

He said: ''Luckily, people quickly forget tragedies.''

http://www.smh.com.au/world/drama-on-the-decks-20120120-1qa4f.html