July deadline for Concordia investigation
Valeria Montesarchio, an Italian judge, has said that experts have until 21 July this year to complete their investigations into the black box of the Costa Concordia, which it is hoped will reveal the exact sequence of events that led to the ship being beached on rocks off the coast of Italy. Francesco Verusio, the state prosecutor who is leading the criminal investigation into the incident, said: “We will close the investigation right after the summer. Thirty-two deaths are asking for justice.” Francesco Schettino, the ship’s captain, is one of six people currently being investigated to assess their role in the disaster. Three Costa Cruises officials are also part of the investigation.
Valeria Montesarchio, an Italian judge, has said that experts have until 21 July this year to complete their investigations into the black box of the Costa Concordia, which it is hoped will reveal the exact sequence of events that led to the ship being beached on rocks off the coast of Italy. Francesco Verusio, the state prosecutor who is leading the criminal investigation into the incident, said: “We will close the investigation right after the summer. Thirty-two deaths are asking for justice.” Francesco Schettino, the ship’s captain, is one of six people currently being investigated to assess their role in the disaster. Three Costa Cruises officials are also part of the investigation.
The moves by many of the ship’s passengers and crew to take legal action against Costa Cruises and its parent Carnival Cruises continue in the meantime. Marc Bona, a lawyer representing two of the crew members who died on the disaster, said the families had decided to bring legal action in Italy rather than the US, where Carnival Cruises has its headquarters, because a court in the US would be likely to refer the case back to an Italian court anyway. Bona told the Financial Times: “Something was completely wrong with the safety management and training of employees. The problem was not just the ship hitting the rocks. The entire system failed.”
Elsewhere, it has been reported that some of the crew who were onboard the Costa Concordia at the time of the accident have felt pressure to accept settlements from Costa Cruises that also mean they forfeit their right to claim psychological and physical distress from the ordeal. Monica Kelly, a lawyer representing Gary Lobaton, a crew member, said: “Most of the ones who have signed did not have the opportunity to review the terms or have the assistance of counsel.” Kelly went on to say that she had heard of some crew members in Indonesia who were being told that if they were to take legal advice about their rights, they may no longer be rehired by the cruise line.
Costa Cruises has denied any of their employees have been put under pressure to accept unfair settlements. Sion Rogers, a spokesperson for Burson Marsteller, the PR agency responsible for handling media enquiries for Costa, said: “On the contrary, we’re receiving requests from the majority of them to shortly return onboard our ships.”
At the company’s recent annual shareholder meeting, Carnival Cruises vice-chariman Howard Frank said that Costa Cruises remains ‘a powerful brand in Europe’. He did add that the full financial effects of the accident in Italy would not be known until later on this year, and admitted that the incident had affected all of the company’s brands.
It is hoped that the Costa Concordia can be refloated. All of the oil has been removed from the ship in an operation that took several weeks. Engineers will now work to seal the ship and make it watertight, before refloating the vessel and tugging it to a dockyard, where the ship will be assessed. It is expected that it could take up to a year to carry out the refloating mission.