More bodies found aboard tipped-over Coastal Concordia cruise ship

CNN COASTAL CONCORDIA CRUISE SHIP

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Posted: 01/17/2012

GIGLIO, Italy (CNN) - Five more bodies were discovered in the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the Italian coast Tuesday, according Coast Guard Captain Filippo Marini, bringing the known death toll to 11 with more than 20 still missing.

The discovery came shortly after a transcript of a conversation between an Italian Coast Guard official and the captain of the stricken ship was published.

The Coast Guard official swore in frustration at the captain after the ship hit rocks Friday night, ordering him at least 10 times to return to the cruise liner and coordinate rescue efforts, the transcript shows.

Authorities in the port of Livorno seemed to believe the captain had abandoned ship with passengers still on board, a report in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra suggests.

"You get on board! This is an order!" the Coast Guard official instructed Capt. Francesco Schettino.

"You have declared 'Abandon ship.' Now I'm in charge. You get on board -- is that clear?" the port official said.

Schettino says at one point that he wants to go back on board, then refers to "other rescuers" and says something about a lifeboat being stuck.

Italian prosecutors confirmed that the quotes match ones in a transcript they were using in their investigation.

The dramatic conversation was published as the captain faced a court hearing to determine whether he remains in jail while the investigation continues, and as divers continued desperate attempts to find survivors.

Navy explosives experts blew a hole in the hull of the vessel to allow access for search-and-rescue teams, Italian Navy officials said Tuesday.

Before Tuesday’s discovery of five bodies, officials listed 28 people as missing.

The list included 14 Germans, six Italians, including a crew member, four French people, two Americans, and one each from Hungary, India and Peru, all of whom are crew members.

One person on that list was found dead Monday, but authorities have not specified which one it is.

The German Foreign Ministry said earlier Tuesday that 12 Germans were unaccounted for, adding that it would investigate any reports of other missing Germans.

Also on Tuesday, Italy's Coast Guard said it has located a second "black box," or data recorder, from the ship that wrecked off Italy's western coast Friday evening.

Operations were under way to retrieve the recorder, said Coast Guard Warrant Petty Officer Massimo Macaroni.

Information from the device, along with that from another that has already been recovered and is being analyzed by prosecutors, will provide authorities with "a complete picture of how the disaster unfolded," Macaroni said.

Authorities questioned Schettino at a closed hearing Tuesday, his attorney said.

Questions abound for captain of doomed cruise ship

He is under arrest and may face charges that include manslaughter, shipwreck, and abandoning a ship when passengers were still on board, Verusio said.

Schettino could face up to 15 years in prison, prosecutor Prosecutor Francesco Verusio said.

The court is expected to announce Tuesday whether he will stay in jail while the investigation continues.

The captain's attorney, Bruno Leporatti, said in a statement Monday that Schettino was "shattered, dismayed, saddened for the loss of lives and strongly disturbed."

But, he said, Schettino is "nonetheless comforted by the fact that he maintained during those moments the necessary lucidity to put in place a difficult emergency maneuver ... bringing the ship to shallow waters." That move, Leporatti said, saved the lives of many passengers and crew members.

Italian prosecutors have ruled out a technical error as the cause of the incident, saying the captain was on the bridge at the time and had made a "grave error."

Overheard on CNN.com: Worst-case scenario strikes

The Costa Concordia 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.

Divers have been searching the skyscraper-sized ship, working underwater in pitch blackness, in hopes of finding the 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 head of the company that owns the ship said Monday he has not given up hope of finding survivors.

"Hope is the last thing to die," said Costa cruises chairman and chief executive Pier Luigi Foschi.

Prosecutors are considering whether others may share responsibility for the crash with the captain.

Foschi placed blame for the wreck squarely on the captain, however, saying Schettino had deviated from frequently traveled routes.

"The captain decided to change the route and he went into water that he did not know in advance," Foschi said.

The ship had about 2,300 tons of fuel on board at the time of the wreck, Foschi said, adding that so far there was "absolutely no evidence of fuel leaking into the sea."

Foschi said passengers would get "material compensation for their loss," but declined

to go into details.

One person who was scheduled to board the Concordia Saturday said he was offered a refund, but will not get the refund for three months.

Survivors described the panic that ensued after the ship's collision with the rocks.

"Debris was flying ... pandemonium just started," said Georgia Ananias, who was in a dining room. "It was horrible, and people were slipping and falling."

Others described a tumultuous ordeal trying to board life boats, in part because the tilt of the ship made boarding some boats difficult.

"When we finally got on the life boat, it took several minutes to get everybody on," Valerie Ananias said. "People were screaming and crying."

Built in 2006, the Concordia had been on a Mediterranean cruise from Rome with stops in Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.

CNN's Livia Borghese, Hada Messia, Dan Rivers, Christopher Cottrell, Diana Magnay and Richard Allen Greene contributed to this report.
 

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