At a news conference in Genoa, the company's home base, Foschi said that Costa Concordia ships have their routes programmed, and alarms go off when they deviate. Those alarms are disabled if the ship's course is manually altered, he said.
"This route was put in correctly upon departure from Civitavecchia," Foschi said, referring to the port outside Rome. "The fact that it left from this course is due solely to a maneuver by the commander that was unapproved, unauthorized and unknown to Costa."Foschi said only once before had the company approved a "fly by" of this sort off Giglio — last year on the night of Aug. 9-10. In that case, the port and company had approved it.
Residents, however, said such displays have occurred several times in the past, though always in the summer when the island is full of tourists.
Foschi didn't respond directly to prosecutors' and passengers' accusations that Schettino abandoned ship before all passengers had been evacuated, but he suggested his conduct wasn't as bad in the hours of the evacuation as has been portrayed. He didn't elaborate.
The Italian coast guard says Schettino defied their entreaties for him to return to his ship as the chaotic evacuation of the 4,200 people aboard was in full progress. After the ship's tilt put many life rafts out of service, helicopters had to pluck to safety dozens of people remaining aboard, hours after Schettino was seen leaving the vessel.
The captain has insisted in an interview before his jailing that he stayed with the vessel to the end.
Foschi defended the conduct of the crew, while acknowledging that passengers had described a chaotic evacuation where crew members consistently downplayed the seriousness of the situation as the ship lurched to the side.
Related searches:
concordia costa,concordia cruise,costa,costa concordia cruise,costa concordia ship,costa cruise,costa cruise ship,costa ship,cruise,cruise ship
