Exchange between Italian Coast Guard and Captain of sunk cruise ship

Danny Tse

From Yahoo News....

Coast Guard: Hello.

Captain: Good evening, chief.

Coast Guard: Listen, this is De Falco from Livorno. Am I speaking with the captain?

Captain: Good evening, Chief De Falco.

Coast Guard: Tell me your name, please.

Captain: I am Captain Schettino, chief.

Coast Guard: Schettino?

Captain: Yes.

Coast Guard: Listen, Schettino. There are people trapped on board. Now, you go with your lifeboat. Under the bow of the ship, on the right side, there is a ladder. You climb on that ladder and go on board the ship. Go on board the ship and get back to me and tell me how many people are there. Is that clear. I am recording this conversation, Captain Schettino.

(Captain tries to speak but Coast Guard can't hear him clearly. Voices in the Coast Guard room.)

Coast Guard: Speak up! (captain tries to speak) Captain, put your hand over the microphone and speak in a louder voice!

Captain: At this moment the ship is listing.

Coast Guard: There are people who are coming down the ladder on the bow. Go back in the opposite direction, get back on the ship, and tell me how many people there are and what they have on board. Tell me if there are children, women and what type of help they need. And you tell me the number of each of these categories. Is that clear?

Listen Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Dammit, go back on board!

(Noise can be heard in the background. Apparently other Coast Guard officers are shouting to each other in the same room about "the ship, the ship")

Captain: Please ...

Coast Guard: There is no 'please' about it. Get back on board. Assure me you are going back on board!

Captain: I'm in a lifeboat, I am under here. I am not going anywhere. I am here.

Coast Guard: What are you doing, captain?

Captain: I am here to coordinate the rescue...

Coast Guard (interrupting): What are you coordinating there! Get on board! Coordinate the rescue from on board! Are you refusing?

Captain: No, I am not refusing.

Coast Guard: Are you refusing to go aboard, captain? Tell me the reason why you are not going back on board.

Captain: (inaudible)... there is a another lifeboat...

Coast Guard (interrupting, yelling): You get back on board! That is an order! There is nothing else for you to consider. You have sounded the "Abandon Ship." Now I am giving the orders. Get back on board. Is that clear? Don't you hear me?

Captain: I am going aboard.

Coast Guard: Go! Call me immediately when you are on board. My rescue people are in front of the bow.

Captain: Where is your rescue craft?

Coast Guard: My rescue craft is at the bow. Go! There are already bodies, Schettino. Go!

Captain: How many bodies are there?

Coast Guard: I don't know! ... Christ, you should be the one telling me that!

Captain: Do you realize that it is dark and we can't see anything?

Coast Guard: So, what do you want to do, to go home, Schettino?! It's dark and you want to go home? Go to the bow of the ship where the ladder is and tell me what needs to be done, how many people there are, and what they need! Now!

Captain: My second in command is here with me.

Coast Guard: Then both of you go! Both of you! What is the name of your second in command?

Captain: His name is Dmitri (static)"

Coast Guard: What is the rest of his name? (static) You and your second in command get on board now! Is that clear?

Captain: Look, chief, I want to go aboard but the other lifeboat here has stopped and is drifting. I have called ...

Coast Guard (interrupting): You have been telling me this for an hour! Now, go aboard! Get on board, and tell me immediately how many people there are!

Captain: OK, chief.

Coast Guard: Go! Immediately!

tonyb

That jackwaggon brought shame to all Italians and cost people their lives. Cowardly piece of crap that he is. Makes me sick !!

polkfarmboy

Hope he goes to jail for this

chumlie

Coward and stupid.

gdb

It's pretty typical of Italian crews. The same line had a ship burn completely up tied to the West Indian Co. dock on St. Thos. USVI in the 1970s. (Angelina Lauro) Same cowardice was shown by the entire crew as they trampled over anyone in their path getting ashore. That beautiful ship was reduced to a stinking mess and sat on the bottom of the harbor for a long time before it was finally towed away.

dorokusai

The CPT. apparently stated that he was "catapulted" from the ship...so he didn't abandon it ****. LMAO. He's off to prison, fo' sho.

mrbigbluelight

Catapulted my arse; heard reports that even after the ship started to list, he was complaining to his steward regarding where his date's desert was.

A person can't get much more cowardly and incompetent that this. Violates every unwritten Law of the Sea that there is. Heard reports that after being charged with manslaughter, he's guaranteed at least a 15 year sentence.

Face

What really happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpjyH-LkEAg

Danny Tse

From CNN....

Cruise ship cook says captain ordered dinner AFTER crash

The captain of the Costa Concordia ordered dinner for himself and a woman after the ship struck rocks off Italy's coast, a cook from the ship told a Filipino television station.

In an interview with GMA Network, cook Rogelio Barista said Capt. Francesco Schettino ordered dinner less than an hour after the accident.

"We wondered what was going on. ... At that time, we really felt something was wrong. ... The stuff in the kitchen was falling off shelves and we realized how grave the situation was," Barista told GMA.

Schettino ordered dinner around 10:30 p.m. Friday, Barista said. Authorities say the ship struck the rocks at 9:41 p.m.

"I have had 12 years of experience as a cook on a cruise ship. ... I have even witnessed fires, so I wasn't that scared," Barista said. "But I did wonder, though, what the captain was doing ... why was he still there."

Limited legal options for cruise victims The ship hit rocks off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio on Friday night.

At least 11 people are known to have died in the disaster, and 21 are still missing, according to the Italian Crisis Unit.

Criticism from both Costa Cruises and the authorities has focused so far on Schettino, who is under house arrest and facing possible charges of manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship.

Coast guard records published Thursday by an Italian newspaper pile further pressure on the captain of the Concordia and his officers, suggesting that the authorities first became aware of the crash from a friend of the mother of a passenger about 15 minutes after the ship hit rocks.

Schettino's brother-in-law defended him in an Italian newspaper Thursday.

Schettino "managed to avoid a tragedy -- it could have been worse," Maurilio Russo said in Corriere della Sera.

And he denied that the captain had abandoned ship.

"He was not running away, he came down (from the ship) to survey the damage," Russo said.

CNN's Armie Jarin-Bennett and Hada Messia contributed to this report.

obieone

There's more than enough blame to go around. The Captains cowardice obviously didn't help, but, there SHOULD have been someone who could've directed damage control procedures, XO, CHENG, etc.