Tuesday, January 17, 2012

More bodies recovered from stricken cruise ship

Giglio, Italy (CNN) -- Italian rescuers and divers continuing their dangerous work Tuesday located a second "black box" and the remains of five people in the wreckage of the Costa Concordia cruise ship.
Eleven people were confirmed dead after the ship ran aground late Friday off a Tuscan island.
With nearly two dozen people still missing from the ship, which is lying on its side off Giglio, a judge allowed its captain to be held on house arrest pending a later decision on whether he should be released.
Capt. Francesco Schettino is under arrest and may face charges that include manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning a ship when passengers were still on board, chief prosecutor Francesco Verusio said.
In dramatic transcripts of conversations between Schettino and the Italian coast guard, published by the Corriere della Sera newspaper, the captain gives conflicting accounts of what happened when the ship hit rocks Friday night just off Italy's western coast, leading to what passengers described as a chaotic and surreal scene as they rushed to evacuate.
At first, Schettino tells an official he had abandoned the vessel, according to the transcripts, which prosecutors say match those they are using in their investigation.
iReporter recalls first Concordia crash
But as the official questions his decision, Schettino appears to reverse course and say he had not abandoned ship but was "catapulted into the water" at some point after the ship ran into a rock, began taking on water and started listing.
In a later conversation, an Italian coast guard official demands Schettino return to his ship, the transcripts show.
"You get on board! This is an order!" the coast guard official instructed Schettino.
"You have declared 'Abandon ship.' Now I'm in charge. You get on board -- is that clear?" the port official said.
Port Authority to cruise ship captain: 'Get on board, damn it'
Rescue and recovery efforts continued Tuesday, with divers searching the ship for survivors and remains.
It was unclear exactly how many people were missing. There were roughly 4,200 people on the Costa Concordia when it ran aground -- about 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members, the vast majority of whom made it off the ship safely.
Before the discovery of the five bodies Tuesday, authorities had said 29 people were missing, including 14 Germans, six Italians, four French citizens, two Americans, and one each from Hungary, India and Peru. There was continued confusion Tuesday about the number of missing Germans, according to the German Foreign Ministry.
A friend of two missing Americans, Gerald and Barbara Ann Heil of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, said their family is "holding up very well" despite the agonizing wait for word from Italy, where the couple had gone for "their trip of a lifetime" after raising four children and working in their community for years. I dont know were to put the comments so i am going to put it in here I think it is bad that the ships are crashing that should not happen any more!!! there is too mant tecnology fot that and its too bad that there are dead people!! but its good that ther are rescuing the people thank you

No comments:

Post a Comment