Italian Cruise Ship Owner Not Backing Captain in Crash
January 15, 2011 – As I sit here, I see on the news that there was an arrest in this case. The captain was just arrested! According to world reports, the Italian cruise ship owners also says they aren’t backing captain that crashed the Casta Concordia.
According to Costa Crociere the owner of the Casta Concordia that had over 4,000 passengers aboard when the captain ran aground. The owner now says that while they were backing the captain of the ship, they no longer will and that he made grievous errors in judgment. His decisions during the emergency did not follow company procedure and they believe that his actions in traveling to near the coastline were the cause of the crash and the sinking of the 948 foot cruise ship.
The captain identified as Rancesco Schettino has been arrested and is facing manslaughter charges for allegedly sailing off course which led to the ship running aground and for abandoning the ship and leaving passengers own their own. At least one story says the captain was screwing off, trying to get a close in fog horn blast to the nearby town.
Sunday afternoon five people from the Costa Concordia were dead and there are at least 15 people still missing. According to survivors, the scene on the terrifying and the crew did not know what to tell the passengers. Originally the crew told passengers that there was a power outage.
Later passengers were instructed to put on life jackets and to take life rafts, but passengers said that the ship’s hull tilled sharp quickly and many of the life rafts could not be lowered into the water. According to authorities it they were not alerted to the ship’s problem for nearly an hour after it ran aground.
This has been a public service message from the injury lawyer for Los Angeles, Ehline Law Firm PC 213.596-9642.
