A court in Italy has heard how captain Francesco Schettino allegedly wanted to fabricate a ‘blackout’ to explain the Costa Concordia crash
Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino allegedly asked a cruise official to lie about the cause of the ship’s crash, hears a court in Tuscany.
A witness giving evidence at Mr Schettino’s trial claims that the ship’s captain tried to blame the collision on a blackout.
Speaking in court on Monday, Roberto Ferrarini, who was the cruise company’s marine operations director at the time of the accident, said: “Schettino proposed I tell authorities that a blackout caused the collision.
“I disagreed strongly and became angry. This was false and different to what he had told me earlier, namely that he had hit rocks and that the ship had flooded.”
Mr Ferrarini had been manning the crisis room at Costa Crociere in Genoa the night of the crash and spoke to Mr Schettino via phone shortly after the incident.
“I remember reacting pretty badly, as did my colleagues in the crisis room”, he added.
Mr Ferrarini was given a reduced sentence of two years and 10 months after pleading guilty to charges relating to his role in coordinating the company’s response to the crisis.
This latest development comes days after the ship’s helmsman was discovered by Interpol officers in a small village outside Jakarta after going missing in March.
Jacib Rusil Bin was due to give evidence at Schettino’s trial last month but failed to show up.
The captain claims that the helmsman, who was steering the cruise liner when it hit rocks off Giglio, misunderstood his orders moments before the ship became grounded.
Mr Schettino is currently on trial for manslaughter and abandoning ship after 32 of the 4,200 passengers and crew on board lost their lives.
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