Europe

Europe

Emergency crews scour Italy wreck for cruise victims

16 January 2012 22:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Italian divers and mountain rescue teams scoured the wreck of a luxury liner crashed on the shores of Tuscany Monday as hopes faded of finding any more survivors on board, APA reports quoting AFP.
Choppy seas forced a temporary evacuation of the stricken 17-deck Costa Concordia for several hours after the half-submerged ship slipped on a rocky shelf under the sea, sparking fears that the giant hulk could sink entirely.
Emergency workers said at least 15 people were still missing, including American, French, German and Italian tourists. The death toll also rose to six after the body of a man was found by divers in the early hours of Monday.
"The conditions inside are disastrous. Itâ€™s very difficult. The corridors are cluttered and itâ€™s hard for the divers to swim through," Rodolfo Raiteri, head of the coastguardâ€™s diving team told AFP on the shore.
Three of the victims -- two Frenchmen and one Peruvian crew member -- drowned after jumping into the chilly winter Mediterranean waters along with dozens of others in a chaotic evacuation in the Friday the 13th tragedy.
Survivors returned home with harrowing accounts of panic on board.
The local mayor voiced hope of finding more people alive, but also warned that the stricken vessel, which hit rocks and keeled over off Giglio island, was an "ecological timebomb" in the pristine waters of a marine nature reserve.
"You never know in the labyrinth of that ship. An air pocket could have allowed people to survive a few days mayor," Sergio Ortelli told AFP.
The head of the company which owns the monster vessel said it had hit a rock as a result of an "inexplicable" error by the captain, Francesco Schettino, who was arrested on Saturday along with first officer Ciro Ambrosio.
"He carried out a manoeuvre which had not been approved by us and we disassociate ourselves from such behaviour," said Pier Luigi Foschi, the boss of Costa Crociere, Europeâ€™s largest cruise operator.
But Foschi also paid tribute to the other crew members, saying they had "all behaved like heroes."
Italian prosecutors accuse the two officers of multiple homicide and abandoning ship before all the passengers were rescued.
Investigators on Sunday also started analysing a "black box" recovered by rescuers, which logged the shipâ€™s movements.
"Itâ€™s clear that the captain underestimated many aspects and did not stay the course," said Filippo Marini, a spokesman for the Italian coast guard.
The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 people when it ran aground shortly after starting a seven-day Mediterranean cruise on its way to Marseille in France and Barcelona in Spain, just as many passengers were having dinner.
Carnival Corp, the parent company of Costa Crociere, put the initial cost of the disaster at $85-95 million (67-75 million euros).
Island residents have already said the ship was sailing far too close to Giglio and had hit a reef known as the School Rocks, well known to inhabitants.
The Corriere della Sera reported Monday that the captain had passed close to the islandâ€™s rocky shores to please the head waiter who comes from Giglio.
It also quoted witnesses as claiming the waiter had warned Schettino just before the accident happened: "Careful, we are extremely close to the shore."
Environment Minister Corrado Clini meanwhile warned that "urgent action" was needed as the wreck posed a serious risk to the area around Giglio.
"This is an ecological timebomb," mayor Ortelli said, adding that there were 2,380 tons of fuel on board.
Crews on Monday began putting down anti-spill booms as fears of a leak rose and local officials called for strict curbs in the future on shipping routes through the area of outstanding natural beauty.
The Dutch ship salvage and environmental disaster management company Smit said it had been hired by the owners of the 114,500-tonne Costa Concordia to pump out fuel from the 290-metre (950-feet) ship.
Martijn Schuttevaer, spokesman for Boskalis, Smitâ€™s holding company, told AFP the operation was expected to start within days.
The 114,500-ton liner could be refloated with the help of huge inflatable buoys once the fuel is pumped out and leaks plugged, Costa Crociere said.
But company boss Foschi said the operation if it goes ahead would be "one of the most difficult in the world."
Passengers meanwhile described confusion on board as the lights went out and how they were at first told it was just an electrical fault -- before the ship lurched sharply on to its side and panic set in.
Some likened the disaster to the Titanic, which sank in the Atlantic with some 1,500 people on board on its maiden voyage in April 1912.
Rose Metcalf, a 23-year-old crew member, wiped away tears as she told how she wrote a note to her mother in case she didnâ€™t survive.
"There was absolute panic. It was just terrifying, I was just trying to keep people calm. People were white, people were crying, screaming," she told BBC television on her return to England.
About 60 nationalities were on the Concordia, although nearly a third of the passengers were Italians.
Medical sources said around 60 people had been injured.
On Sunday, emergency teams rescued two South Korean honeymooners and an Italian crewman who suffered a broken leg.
The honeymooners, Han Ki-Deok and his wife Jeong Hye-Jin told South Koreaâ€™s Yonhap news agency that they had been sleeping after dinner, oblivious to the disaster outside.
Yonhap quoted Han as saying: "By the time we woke up, the ship was tilting."