ROME—Costa Crociere, operator of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia,
learned the vessel was flooding from a collision off the coast of
Tuscany within minutes of the accident and more than an hour before
passengers were instructed to evacuate the ship, according to testimony
the company delivered to the Italian Senate on Wednesday.
The testimony by Pier Luigi Foschi,
chief executive of Costa Crociere, a unit of Carnival Corp., marked the
company's first public acknowledgment that captain Francesco Schettino
kept the company updated on the crisis as it spiraled out of control.
The account also raised more questions about why Mr. Schettino and
Costa Crociere waited until 10:58 p.m. to sound the ship's evacuation
alarm, more than an hour after the ship hit the rock on Jan. 13, causing
at least 16 confirmed deaths and leaving 19 people still missing.
Mr. Foschi didn't say whether Costa Crociere's head of marine
operations, Roberto Ferrarini, made attempts to contact the Coast Guard.
A Costa Crociere spokesman declined to comment on the matter.
"Either one of them should have called the Coast Guard," said Bill
Doherty, an experienced ship master with the maritime-safety consultancy
Nexus. If a ship strikes a rock, standard operating procedure for ship
commanders is to immediately alert the coast guard and ships in the area
and get passengers into position for a possible evacuation, he said.
Newspictures/Abaca USA
Passengers evacuate the shipwrecked Costa Concordia on Jan. 13.
Mr. Foschi's testimony was based on a
memorandum prepared by Mr. Ferrarini, who fielded at least six calls
from Mr. Schettino in the 73-minute gap between the ship's collision and
the sounding of its evacuation alarm, Mr. Foschi said. In his first
four calls—between 9:57 and 10:33—the captain described how water was
spreading through the hull, making it harder for the ship to stay
upright and afloat, Mr. Foschi said. That account appears to undercut
Mr. Foschi's assertion on Jan. 16 that Mr. Schettino first warned the
cruise line of an "unidentified" emergency at 10:06.
Mr. Ferrarini "didn't understand that the situation was taking such
an extreme form," Mr. Foschi said. Mr. Ferrarini and a lawyer for Mr.
Schettino—who is under house arrest on preliminary charges of multiple
manslaughter and abandonment of ship—didn't respond to a written request
for comment on Mr. Foschi's testimony.
The comments come at a delicate time. Italian prosecutors have so far
focused their investigation on Mr. Schettino's conduct. They are also
probing the phone calls to understand whether the ship operator's
reaction exacerbated the crisis, said people familiar with the matter.
While the captain and Mr. Ferrarini were on the phone, the Italian
Coast Guard received complaints from passengers, prompting the Coast
Guard to radio the ship's bridge at 10:14. They were told the ship was
only suffering a blackout, delaying the rescue effort. The Coast Guard
eventually sent rescuers anyway.
Mr. Schettino, in closed-door testimony
to an Italian judge last week, said he didn't immediately alert
passengers because he didn't want to stir panic, said people with
knowledge of his testimony. Instead, Mr. Schettino said he focused his
efforts on trying to ensure the ship made it closer to shore, enabling a
safer evacuation, these people said.
Mr. Foschi on Wednesday said the design of the ship's hull—divided
into several watertight compartments— allows a section of the hull to
flood without sinking the entire ship. As many as two compartments can
fill with water without putting the ship at risk, he said. If water
breaches a third compartment, "the situation becomes very critical.
Beyond that the ship can't float," Mr. Foschi said.
"At 9:57, Schettino said he had a huge problem onboard, that a
blackout was in course, that there wasn't any electrical current. He
told Ferrarini that he hit a rock," Mr. Foschi said.
"In that first call, the commander said that only one compartment was
flooded," he csaid. In a second call, at 10:06, the captain reported
the flooding of a second compartment but said the ship's ability to
float "wasn't compromised," Mr. Foschi said.
At 10:16, Mr. Ferrarini and the captain began a 10-minute discussion
on "the size of the breach," Mr. Foschi said, adding that Mr. Schettino
gave him assurances that the situation was "under control."
At 10:33, Mr. Schettino told Mr. Ferrarini the boat was listing and
that he was now in contact with Italian authorities. Two minutes later,
he called back to say he planned to abandon ship.
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