The race is on for legal address of the Costa Concordia shipwreck which resulted in serious injury and fatality for many of its passengers. Investigations of the disaster that occurred earlier this month are still underway, as officials seek to uncover why the capsized ship was ever sailing so close to the coastline in the first place.
As Europe's largest cruise ship operator, a lot of pressure is being placed on the Costa cruise line, particularly its spokesperson officials and chief operators. Under the heated grilling of Rome's Senate committee, Costa Crociere chief, P.L. Foshci issued statements saying that the luxury liner company was misled by the ship's captain. Now infamous captain Francesco Schettino is already under a lot of heat in the wake of the cruise crash, and reports issued by the European company have done little to aid in his defense.
Although Foschi admitted to the cruise company's habit of sometimes encouraging its captains to sail near the coast as a technique of cruising enrichment, the captain's disastrous maneuver is said to have not been authorized. Furthermore, Costa Crociere's chief crisis unit officer was reportedly not given an accurate portrayal of the true crisis on board the slowly sinking ship. Rather, captain Schettino waited ten minutes after the ship hit the patch of rocks, and reported only that there had been a blackout and one of the sealed chambers was flooded. Even worse, in the second call, which came through less than ten minutes later, Schettino reported that "the stability of the ship was not in danger."
As the senate meeting with the chief executive officer continued, more and more detailed accounts were given of the communication between ship officials on the fateful night of January 13, 2012. According to Foschi, it was not until the fourth dispatch from the ship's captain that the true nature of the problem was revealed, and it was also during this communication that Schettino reported the decision to abandon ship. Until that last call, none of the conversations had indicated the direness of the situation.
Captain Schettino has been accused of manslaughter, causing shipwreck, and abandoning ship. He remains under house arrest, as the confirmed death toll reaches 16 and 16 remain missing. Giglio's head of rescue operations said it would be nothing short of a miracle to find any more survivors this many days after the shipwreck.
Now, prosecutors, cruise ship owners, and legal officials alike are comparing the evidence and statements that have been gathered in conjunction with the disaster, and some reports aren't matching up. The accounts of the captain do not always coincide with the reports given earlier by himself and his company; until they do, legal scrutiny will continue.
A disaster of this nature is bound to cause great upheaval, both for the victims and family members involved as well as those who work in the industry. Further damages could result from the 2,380 tons of fuel housed within the ship. In fact, crews from the company Smit Salvage are currently looking for ways to extract the fuel without causing spillage into the Tuscan archipelago. An oil slick of 60,000 square meters and toxic substances from on board the ship have already caused contamination to the ocean.
Accidents of this degree have the potential to affect the lives of many, including those working in the offshore industry. Therefore, an offshore injury attorney should be contacted if you have been injured or adversely affected in any way. At Arnold & Itkin, LLP you can rely on the steadfast services our firm has to offer. With successful verdicts and settlements in excess of hundreds of millions of dollars, our experience and success rates speak for themselves.
Contact an offshore injury lawyer from our firm today.
