Captain gets 16 years for cruise ship deaths

32 passengers died after Costa Concordia hit reef.

GROSSETO, ITALY — A court convicted the Costa Concordia’s commander of the manslaughter deaths of 32 people in the cruise liner’s capsizing off the Italian coast and sentenced him Wednesday to some 16 years in prison. The court blamed him for causing the 2012 shipwreck and for doing what sea captains should never do — abandoning ship while passengers and crew were aboard.

Francesco Schettino’s total prison term broke down this way: 10 years for the deaths of 32 passengers and crew members; five years for causing the shipwreck when he steered too close to Giglio Island, smashing into a rocky reef, one year for abandoning the luxury vessel when hundreds of people were still aboard, and one month for giving false information to maritime authorities about the gravity of the Concordia’s collision, which prosecutors said delayed the arrival of help.

The punishment, handed down by a threejudge panel, was 10 years short of what prosecutors had sought, and left some survivors and victims’ relatives wondering if justice was done.

“Thirty-two dead. That’s about six months for every person who died,” said Anne Decre, a Frenchwoman who managed to get aboard a lifeboat before the Concor- dia’s listing made it impossible to lower other lifeboats.

Schettino chose not to come to court for the verdict. Judge Giovanni Puliatti rejected the prosecutor’s request for the defendant’s immediate arrest. The judge noted that Schettino still had two levels of appeals to exhaust under Italian law before he must begin serving his sentence.

Before deliberations began, Schettino made a last-minute appeal to the court, claiming he was being “sacrificed” to safeguard the economic interests of his employer.

The reef gashed the hull, seawater rushed in, and the Concordia listed badly, finally ending up on its side outside Giglio’s port. Autopsies determined that victims drowned aboard ship or in the sea after either falling or jumping off the ship during a chaotic, delayed evacuation.

“My head was sacrificed to serve economic interests,” he told the court.

AP The Costa Concordia lies on its side near Italy’s Giglio Island. The ship, which was carrying 4,200 passengers, hit a reef on Jan. 13, 2012, when it was steered too close to the island.

Francesco Schettino attends his trial Wednesday. Schettino said before the verdict that his company should share in the blame.