Rescue efforts on Italian cruise ship halted

GIGLIO, Italy — Italian rescuers suspended efforts to find survivors yesterday as the hulk of a giant cruise liner slipped in worsening weather on the steep rocky underwater slope on which it is lodged off Italy’s west coast.

Earlier they recovered a sixth body from the 114,500-tonne Costa Concordia, which was holed by a reef on Friday night and rolled onto its side just off the coast of the picturesque island of Giglio. In addition to the six known to have died, officials say 16 of the 4,200 passengers and crew are missing.

The chief executive of the ship’s owners, Costa Cruises, yesterday blamed human error by the vessel’s captain, Francesco Schettino for the disaster. Pier Luigi Foschi told a news conference the company would provide its captain with any assistance he required. “But we need to acknowledge the facts and we cannot deny human error,” he added.

The calm weather which since Friday has aided the rescue and search of the wreck, one of the biggest ever, took a turn for the worse with rougher seas and a light drizzle falling.

In mid-morning fire brigade spokesman Luca Carli told reporters: “There was a slippage of 9 cm vertically and 1.5 cm horizontally. We evacuated immediately. This is something we have been worried about. “Operations are suspended. We will have to monitor the stability of the ship and we don’t know when we will resume operations,” he said.

A salvage expert on Giglio said the ship was clearly moving after being held in place by sharp points of rock that had pierced the hull. Rougher seas could break it free, which would be a “big problem”, he said.

Carli of the fire brigade said the rescuers could hear no noises from possible survivors inside the half-submerged ship.

“Obviously the more time passes, the less possibility there is of finding anyone alive,” he said.

Foschi said Schettino’s actions had caused the accident and were contrary to company rules. The captain denies being too close to the coast and says the rock he hit was not marked on charts.

His lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, said Schettino was “overcome and wants to express his greatest condolences to the victims”.

But he said Schettino’s actions in anchoring the ship at one end to swing it closer to the shore after the collision, “saved the lives of thousands of people”.

“It could have been an enormous tragedy,” Leporatti added.

The United Nations’ shipping agency, the International Maritime Organisation, said it was important not to pre-judge the outcome of an inquiry but said it would examine changes to regulations if these were shown to be necessary.

Recalling the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912, IMO Secretary-general Koji Sekimizu said: “In the centenary year of the Titanic, we have once again been reminded of the risks involved in maritime activities.”

Even before the wreck of the Costa Concordia moved, the rescue had been hampered by heavier seas.

A diver working to search

the

vast dark spaces inside the multi-storey liner said: “The sea is rougher today. It is much more difficult to work.”

The father of the ship’s head waiter said that his son had telephoned him before the accident to say the crew would salute him by blowing the ship’s whistle as they passed close by Giglio, where both the waiter, Antonello Tievoli, and his 82-year-old father Giuseppe live.

“The ship obviously came too close,” the elder Tievoli said. “I don’t know if Antonello asked the captain to come near, but the responsibility is always the captain’s.”

Passengers say there seemed to be unexplained delays in sending an SOS and organising the evacuation of those on board and this had resulted in chaos.

Giuseppe Linardi, the national gov- ernment prefect for the province of Grosseto, told reporters the number of those unaccounted for stood at 16 but that could change slightly as passenger lists were rechecked. He said efforts to prevent an environmental disaster would have to wait until the rescue was over.

“The worsening of the weather could create a critical situation,” he said. Forecasters said heavier seas were on the way

Workers from Dutch salvage company Smit said equipment to pump fuel off the stricken liner was being sent by barge but the operation would depend on it remaining stable.

The ship is resting in about 20 metres of water but could go down by up to 130 metres if it becomes detached from the rocks. — Reuters