File photo
Grosetto, Italy:
A series of pre-trial hearings into the Costa Concordia shipwreck with captain Francesco Schettino was to wrap up on Friday, paving the way for a trial on a tragedy in which 32 people died.
The hearing brings to an end a week of heated debates between lawyers and technical experts on the details of what happened that night of January 13 when the luxury liner smashed into an offshore reef near the shores of Tuscany.
Schettino has said that after the giant cruise ship hit the rocks he "let down the ship's anchors to keep the ship steady and to prevent it from drifting right", which would have taken it out to sea and not back towards the shore.
He has claimed he acted "to give enough time to get the passengers off" and also used the anchors as a means to gauge how deep the sea was beneath him -- hoping to get the ship into shallower waters and reduce the risk of casualties.
The ship eventually keeled over a few dozen metres (yards) from the shore.
Whether or not the man who was nicknamed "Captain Coward" after appearing to abandon ship before the evacuation was complete acted to reduce the number of possible casualties has been heatedly debated among lawyers and their experts.
"It is much more difficult to claim that the manoeuvre (to steer the ship towards land) was accidental than to admit that it was done on purpose," said lawyer Francesco Pepe, one of Schettino's defence team.
But technical expert Alessandro Belardini, who dived next to the wreck in June, said "the anchors never caught and had no effect on the ship's direction. It only ended up where it did because of the momentum, wind and current".
Mr Belardini, who compiled his report for the law firm representing the family of a Hungarian violinist who died in the disaster, confirmed the findings of technical experts appointed to analyse data recordings and audio recordings.
"It's been proved that the Concordia was left without power from 9:48 pm onwards," three minutes after the ship gashed its side on a rock off the Tuscan island of Giglio during a badly-judged nighttime "salute" to the inhabitants.
Friday's hearing was the last in a series that began on Monday.
A total of 10 people are being investigated including Schettino and six other crew members, as well as three managers from ship owner Costa Crociere, which is part of the world's biggest cruise operator, US-based Carnival.
The drama of the upcoming trial began to emerge this week, with a clear stand-off between Schettino and Costa Crociere over responsibilities.
The trial is not expected until next year however and none of the people being investigated have yet been formally charged.
One of the key questions of courtroom clash will be to work out why the order to evacuate the ship was given such a long time after the crash -- a delay that investigators see as a potentially fatal factor in the tragedy.
"I fear only one thing, that the truth will not come out," Schettino told Sky Italia television. Several participants at the hearings said the captain appeared agitated in court and had to be calmed down by his lawyer.
On Thursday, Costa Crociere's lawyer Marco De Luca accused the captain of shifting the blame onto others who had been with him on the bridge that night.
"Offloading responsibility for the most delicate decisions and everything that followed onto his subordinates does not seem very honourable," he said.
Among key questions debated so far has been why the order to evacuate the ship was given such a long time after the crash in a potentially fatal delay.
In his statement, obtained by AFP, the captain's version of events that night are confused and when pressed by the interrogating prosecutor to be clearer he says "I am trying. You don't know me but I am an honest man."
Accused of intentionally abandoning ship, Schettino insists he fell off onto a lifeboat when the Concordia rolled onto its side.
In audio recordings of conversations between the coast guard and Schettino, he appeared reluctant to return to the ship, complaining that it was dark.
According to Antonio Langher, the lawyer for Salvatore Ursino, one of the 10 under investigation, Schettino arrived too late on the bridge to safely oversee a "sail-by" manoeuvre which was particularly risky in the dark.
He said: "The ship was sailing close to land, in the dark. He shouldn't have been risking a sail-by, but even if he did it was Schettino's duty to reinforce the bridge, increase look-outs, and put his best men in charge."
The hearing brings to an end a week of heated debates between lawyers and technical experts on the details of what happened that night of January 13 when the luxury liner smashed into an offshore reef near the shores of Tuscany.
Schettino has said that after the giant cruise ship hit the rocks he "let down the ship's anchors to keep the ship steady and to prevent it from drifting right", which would have taken it out to sea and not back towards the shore.
He has claimed he acted "to give enough time to get the passengers off" and also used the anchors as a means to gauge how deep the sea was beneath him -- hoping to get the ship into shallower waters and reduce the risk of casualties.
The ship eventually keeled over a few dozen metres (yards) from the shore.
Whether or not the man who was nicknamed "Captain Coward" after appearing to abandon ship before the evacuation was complete acted to reduce the number of possible casualties has been heatedly debated among lawyers and their experts.
"It is much more difficult to claim that the manoeuvre (to steer the ship towards land) was accidental than to admit that it was done on purpose," said lawyer Francesco Pepe, one of Schettino's defence team.
But technical expert Alessandro Belardini, who dived next to the wreck in June, said "the anchors never caught and had no effect on the ship's direction. It only ended up where it did because of the momentum, wind and current".
Mr Belardini, who compiled his report for the law firm representing the family of a Hungarian violinist who died in the disaster, confirmed the findings of technical experts appointed to analyse data recordings and audio recordings.
"It's been proved that the Concordia was left without power from 9:48 pm onwards," three minutes after the ship gashed its side on a rock off the Tuscan island of Giglio during a badly-judged nighttime "salute" to the inhabitants.
Friday's hearing was the last in a series that began on Monday.
A total of 10 people are being investigated including Schettino and six other crew members, as well as three managers from ship owner Costa Crociere, which is part of the world's biggest cruise operator, US-based Carnival.
The drama of the upcoming trial began to emerge this week, with a clear stand-off between Schettino and Costa Crociere over responsibilities.
The trial is not expected until next year however and none of the people being investigated have yet been formally charged.
One of the key questions of courtroom clash will be to work out why the order to evacuate the ship was given such a long time after the crash -- a delay that investigators see as a potentially fatal factor in the tragedy.
"I fear only one thing, that the truth will not come out," Schettino told Sky Italia television. Several participants at the hearings said the captain appeared agitated in court and had to be calmed down by his lawyer.
On Thursday, Costa Crociere's lawyer Marco De Luca accused the captain of shifting the blame onto others who had been with him on the bridge that night.
"Offloading responsibility for the most delicate decisions and everything that followed onto his subordinates does not seem very honourable," he said.
Among key questions debated so far has been why the order to evacuate the ship was given such a long time after the crash in a potentially fatal delay.
In his statement, obtained by AFP, the captain's version of events that night are confused and when pressed by the interrogating prosecutor to be clearer he says "I am trying. You don't know me but I am an honest man."
Accused of intentionally abandoning ship, Schettino insists he fell off onto a lifeboat when the Concordia rolled onto its side.
In audio recordings of conversations between the coast guard and Schettino, he appeared reluctant to return to the ship, complaining that it was dark.
According to Antonio Langher, the lawyer for Salvatore Ursino, one of the 10 under investigation, Schettino arrived too late on the bridge to safely oversee a "sail-by" manoeuvre which was particularly risky in the dark.
He said: "The ship was sailing close to land, in the dark. He shouldn't have been risking a sail-by, but even if he did it was Schettino's duty to reinforce the bridge, increase look-outs, and put his best men in charge."
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