The captain of the fatal Italian cruise ship has been fired for his irrational behaviors shortly before and after it got stranded near the Tuscan island of Giglio with 4,200 tourists on board.
Francesco Schettino, the captain of the Costa Concordia, was found to have escaped from the ship before all the passengers and crew members were evacuated when the incident took place, according to news reports, including the Telegraph.
In an interview with a local television network, an Italian prosecutor confirmed the allegations that the captain fled out of the ship ahead of passengers. The chief of a ship faces a prison term of up to12 years when he abandons his ship based on the local marine law.
What caused the ship stranded is even embarrassing. Captain Schettino reportedly steered the cruise liner towards the rocky coast off Giglio Island just to greet his fellow navigators who live on the island.
“It was weird to see the cruise ship coming that closer to the shore,” one of the residents on the island told the journalists. “In general, ships keep at least eight kilometers away from the shore, but the Concordia was only few hundred meters away.”
What’s even more appalling is he was drinking with a lady just before the accident. “The worst thing is that I cannot forget the scene of captain spending much of the evening before we hit the rocks drinking in the bar with a beautiful woman on his arms,” a 41-year-old Monique Maurek, an undertaker from Netherlands, told The Sunday Telegraph.
Costa Crociere, the operator of the cruise ship, actually admitted the captain’s fault, saying, “The direct cause of the disaster is his misjudgment.”
Meanwhile, six passengers have been confirmed to be dead from the Costa Concordia cruise liner as of Jan. 16. The death toll will further increase as an additional 14 passengers -- 9 passengers including 1 child and 5 sailors-- unaccounted for..
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2012/01/113_103145.html
No comments:
Post a Comment