Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press
Divers suspended their efforts as the Costa Concordia shifted on the rocks where it was stranded on Wednesday. More Photos �
GIGLIO, Italy ? Rescuers suspended operations on Wednesday after the stricken cruise liner Costa Concordia shifted on the rocks here as Italy remained transfixed by media coverage of a tense screaming match between the coast guard and the captain, who fled to a lifeboat after he smashed the ship on a reef.
Fillipo Marini, a Coast Guard spokesman, said sensors aboard the vessel recorded a slight movement just after first light, forcing divers to delay plans to blast five more holes in the hull to open up new access routes into the $450 million vessel, listing at a crazy angle in calm seas.
At the same time, salvage crews waited to begin pumping the 2,300 tons of fuel out of the liner?s submerged tanks to avert a potential ecological disaster around Giglio, best known as a destination for tourists from the nearby Tuscan mainland.
Both rescuers and salvage teams are keeping a close eye on the weather in light of forecasts of high winds on Thursday.
Confusion remained over how many people were still missing. With the discovery of five more bodies on Tuesday, the known death toll rose to 11. Italian officials said before the bodies were found that at least 24 people from the ship were still unaccounted for, including two Americans, Gerald and Barbara Heil, a retired Minnesota couple married for 43 years.
But later accounts from Italian authorities put the number of missing at 23.
On Tuesday, publication of the transcripts of the exchanges between the coast guard and the captain added a dramatic new dimension to the accounts of the accident on Friday night, when Capt. Francesco Schettino, 52, apparently tried to show off the gleaming cruise liner to residents of Giglio, and in the process ripped a hole in its hull. The ship quickly began to list heavily to starboard as panicked passengers and crew members made pell-mell escapes, evoking images of the Titanic?s final moments.
?Go up on the bow of the ship on a rope ladder, and tell me what you can do, how many people are there and what they need ? now!? Gregorio Maria De Falco, a coast guard officer, told Captain Schettino by telephone as the captain bobbed Friday night in a lifeboat, as revealed in audio recordings published by Corriere della Sera, a leading Italian newspaper. ?All right, I?m going,? Captain Schettino is heard to reply.
The recordings and transcripts suggested that the coast guard officer was stupefied that Captain Schettino had vacated the ship before accounting for all 4,200 passengers and crew members on board. They also indicate that the captain did not know that people had died, and had asked the coast guard officer for an accounting. ?You are the one who has to tell me how many there are! Christ!? the officer screams at the captain in response.
Prosecutors and the cruise line that owns the ship have blamed Captain Schettino for the wreck, saying he deviated from the course plotted in advance. Captain Schettino has said that he hit an uncharted rock.
Late Tuesday a judge decided to free Captain Schettino from police custody but ordered him placed under house arrest at his home in Sorrento, about 250 miles south of the shipwreck site. Criminal charges including manslaughter and abandoning ship are expected to be filed by prosecutors in coming days.
News, photos and video from the shipwreck have sent shudders through the cruise industry at the most important time of the year for vacation bookings. In a sign of growing concern, Micky Arison, chief executive of the Costa Concordia?s parent company, Carnival Corporation of Miami, the largest cruise line operator, issued a statement on Tuesday expressing grief at word of the newly discovered bodies. Mr. Arison also disclosed that Carnival had sent senior technical experts to Giglio to offer ?additional support for this tragic and highly unusual incident.?
The recovery of the five bodies on Tuesday came after rescue crews blasted holes into the stricken vessel?s hull to open new access routes.
Mr. Marini, the coast guard spokesman, said the five ? a woman and four men apparently 50 to 60 years old ? were all in the stern of the vessel as it lay canted, its funnel, or smokestack, almost parallel to the water in which the ship foundered. Another official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that all five bodies had been below the waterline.
Their nationalities were not immediately known.
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=f3916006fe0cc2e53b41c4f5eb3b45e6
cnn world news live cnn world news live online cnn world news music cnn world news open cnn world news opening
No comments:
Post a Comment