THE SAD tale of the shipwreck of the Costa Concordiatook another unexpected twist yesterday when Italian media sources reported that several witnesses had seen a young woman on the bridge with the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, at the moment of the collision that saw the ship run aground off the island of Giglio in Tuscany last Friday night.
One week after the tragedy, the death toll remains at 11, with 21 still missing. Even though good weather and a calm sea enabled divers to continue their search throughout yesterday, no new victims were found.
Two of the dead already retrieved from the wreck were formally identified as Jeanne Gannard and Pierre Grégoire, both French.
Speaking in the Italian senate yesterday, environment minister Corrado Clini for the second consecutive day conceded that he was worried that forecast bad weather could yet greatly complicate rescue operations and in particular the recovery of the estimated 2,300 tons of fuel in the ship’s tanks. However, the operation to siphon off the fuel is not scheduled to begin until such time as rescue workers are certain that all hope of finding more survivors has disappeared.
Technicians from the Dutch salvage company Smit sounded relatively confident they would be able to retrieve the fuel.
Even in the event that the grounded Concordiaslides off its current perch on a 30m-deep ledge and sinks completely in deeper waters, they still believe they will be able to retrieve the fuel.
Undoubtedly, though, the most startling development of the day concerned the mystery woman on the bridge. Yesterday a Moldovan broadcaster, Jurnal TV, carried an interview with 25-year-old Moldovan Domnica Cemortan, who said she had been with the captain on the night of the shipwreck.
Ms Cemortan, who said she was an employee of the Costa Cruise company, said she had been on holiday on this particular cruise.
Grosseto public prosecutors are now reportedly anxious to interview her in order to establish not only why she was not on the ship’s official passenger list but also if she was the woman seen at dinner with the captain in the ship’s restaurant at 9pm last Friday night, just 40 minutes before the ship smashed into the rocks.
Furthermore, at least two Italian dailies, La Nazioneand Il Mattino, reported that Schettino had been seen in the company of not one but two young ladies on the ship on Friday night.
Divers working on the ship have been instructed by magistrates to search the captain’s quarters, retrieving any documentation that might help the ongoing investigation, which has seen him charged with manslaughter, abandoning of his ship and shipwreck.
In the meantime, the Costa Cruise company remains firmly in the spotlight, especially after it emerged that it had removed a blog from its site celebrating other “sail-bys” (sailing close to land) by Schettino, including one close to Procida, near Naples, in 2010, similar to the ill-fated manoeuvre that caused last week’s tragedy.
