Costa’s ‘Captain Coward’ faces the music – but why alone?

Grosseto, Tuscany – Nearly three years after the Costa Concordia capsized and sank off the isle of Giglio, the cruise ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, takes the stand today - the one man set to go down, after not going down with the ship.

Five others have plea-bargained their way out of jail. Scores of witnesses have given testimony. Today, the climax of the prosecution’s case is the testimony of the man dubbed ‘Captain Coward’ for leaving the Concordia as 32 passengers and crew died – claiming he tripped and fell into a passing lifeboat as the ship capsized.

He faces 32 counts of manslaughter and causing a disaster – but, controversially, he faces them alone.

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Will the dozens of lawyers representing those who survived, and the families of those who did not, be successful in their quest to spread the blame up the chain of command of the ship’s operator, Costa Crociere, and its parent, Carnival, the world’s largest cruise company?

The Concordia itself has been refloated and ceremoniously hauled away from Giglio, but it has left its mysteries there, swirling around the island like a lugubrious winter fog.

Why wasn’t the 'abandon ship' order given right away and what financial factors were driving the company’s decision-making at that crucial moment?

What did Roberto Ferrarini, crisis manager at Costa Crociere, order Schettino to do (or not to do)? An abandoned ship is lost property, while a ship in need of repair or a tow is recuperable for insurance. Did this consideration play a role?

There were dozens of irregularities and malfunctions aboard the ship. Why are the ship’s operators not being held accountable under the innumerable international maritime laws and regulations, while Schettino appears to be made a buffoon-like scapegoat?

These are the questions lawyers and media are raising this week in Grosseto, in and outside the theatre where the trial is being held.

Witnesses have talked of illicit trafficking: a Spanish lawyer who was a passenger has said he and his wife saw a mysterious white yacht come alongside and orange packets the size of pizza boxes being loaded and unloaded from the cruise ship. What was that all about?

And what happened to Schettino’s black bag and laptop, which the Moldavian dancer and the captain’s supposed lover, Domnica Cemortan, claims he had with him, and others also recall seeing?

What was he carrying that had to disappear? Or, as his lawyers maintain, was this just another lie or figment of a traumatised imagination?

Schettino – and other cruise captains – regular performed dangerously close 'sail-bys' to give passengers picture-perfect views of pristine coastlines. Holiday snapshots from cruises skirting the isle of Capri show it is not an uncommon practice.

Lawyers for the passengers are arguing that the operators knew of this culture of risk-taking and bravado, which put lives at risk on every cruise.

Will this or any future court hold executive officers of Costa Crociere or Carnival liable for the actions of their captain and crew and the malfunctions of the ship?

Civil plaintiffs maintain that Costa Crociere officials originally told the coastguard there was just a fishing line caught in the propellers. Then, when they learned it had hit the rocks, they sent a fast boat with a team of diver welders, in hopes they could repair the doomed ship.

Inflatable life rafts did not inflate. According to the technical report on the accident deposited in court, a third of the staff detailed to run the evacuation were not qualified to do so. Dozens from Sri Lanka and Indonesia and spoke no Italian and very little English, a language barrier that became critical in an emergency.

Lawyers have pointed out that a helmsman from Schettino’s hometown of Meta di Sorrento can cost E4,000 a month, while a helmsman from Indonesia costs less than E1,000 a month. Some passengers paid just E300 euros a week for the low-budget cruise: the evidence shown in court during this lengthy trial suggests cost-cutting may have jeopardised sea safety.

Francesco Schettino will take the stand alone, but he alone is not responsible for 32 dying and dozens more being traumatised for life.

“Captain Schettino is part of a system,” shipping accident investigator Arne Sagen told me. “Out on the seas it is like the Wild West," added Jan Harsem, a sea safety advocate who lost his own wife and daughter in the Scandinavian Star ferry fire in 1990. "Shipping companies are not being held responsible for accidents.”