3 rescued from shipwreck, 17 still missing
GIGLIO, Italy — A South Korean honeymoon couple and an injured crewmember were plucked from a capsized Italian liner yesterday, more than a day after it was wrecked, as rescue workers struggled to find any others still trapped on board.
Teams were painstakingly checking thousands of cabins on the Costa Concordia for people still unaccounted for after the huge vessel foundered and keeled over with more than 4,000 on board. The confirmed number of deaths rose to five yesterday with the discovery of two more bodies in the flooded stern of the Costa Concordia.
The task is akin to searching a small town - but one tilted on its side, largely in darkness and partly submerged. At about 1 pm rescue workers airlifted Manrico Gianpetroni, chief purser, hours after making voice contact with him several decks below.
Gianpetroni, who had a broken leg, was lifted from the ship on a stretcher by an airborne helicopter and taken directly to hospital. “I never lost hope of being saved. It was a 36-hour nightmare,” he told reporters. After midnight, rescue workers had found the two South Koreans still alive in a cabin, after locating them from several decks above, and brought them ashore looking dazed but unharmed. By yesterday afternoon, about a quarter of the part of the ship that was still above the waterline had been searched. “This is a floating city and it’s very difficult,” said Luca Cari, firefighter’s spokesman on Giglio.
The captain of the luxury 114,500-tonne ship, Francesco Schettino, was under arrest and accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship, Italian police said. Passengers, comparing the disaster to the movie Titanic, told of people leaping into the sea and fighting over lifejackets in panic when the ship hit a rock and ran aground near the island of Giglio, late on Friday.
Two French tourists and a Peruvian crew member were known to have died. There was confusion about the number of people still unaccounted for. The president of the Tuscan region said the number stood at 17 but other estimates were as high as 34.
The vast hulk of the 290-metre-long cruise ship, resting on its side, loomed over the little port of Giglio, a picturesque island in a maritime nature reserve off the Tuscan coast. A large gash was visible in its side.
Rescue workers including specialist diving teams were working their way through more than 2,000 cabins on the ship, a floating resort that boasted a huge spa, seven restaurants, bars, cinemas and discotheques. State prosecutor Francesco Verusio said investigations might go beyond the captain.
“We are investigating the possible responsibility of other people who could be responsible for such a dangerous manoeuvre,” he told SKYTG24 television. “The command systems did not function they should have.”
Magistrates said Schettino, whose had been carrying 4,229 passengers and crew, abandoned the vessel before all the passengers were taken off. The vessel’s operator, Costa Crociere, a unit of Carnival Corp & Plc, the world’s largest cruise company, said the Costa Concordia had been sailing on its regular course when it struck a submerged rock. In a television interview, Schettino said the rock was not marked on any maritime charts of the area.
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Costa Crociere president Gianni Ororato said the captain “performed a manoeuvre intended to protect both guests and crew” but it was “complicated by a sudden tilting of the ship”. “We’ll be able to say at the end of the investigation. It would be premature to speculate on this,” said coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini.
After a night-time operation on Friday and Saturday involving helicopters, ships and lifeboats, many passengers had left the area with many taken to Rome airport for flights home. — Agencies