5 more bodies found on Costa Concordia
Five more bodies were found on the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia on Tuesday as officials released a recording of the captain making excuses to a Coast Guard official who repeatedly orders him to get back to his crippled ship.
Divers located the latest victims, all of them adults wearing life jackets, in the rear of the ship near an emergency evacuation point, said Italian Coast Guard Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro.
In the recording made after the ship hit rocks Friday night the official berates Capt. Francesco Schettino, who is on a lifeboat and repeatedly says he doesn’t want to return to the ship even as passengers are still being evacuated.
The officer tells Schettino to reboard and assess the needs of passengers.
“It is an order,” the official says. “Don’t make any more excuses.”
The Costa Concordia hit rocks near Giglio Island and capsized Friday night with about 4,200 people aboard after the captain made an unauthorized maneuver off Italy’s Tuscany coast.
The death toll now stands at 11. Italian naval divers on Tuesday exploded holes in the hull of the ship to speed the search for up to 24 missing people while seas were still calm. One official said there was still a “glimmer of hope” that survivors could be found.
Prosecutors prepared to question Schettino in court. He has been jailed for investigation of manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing a shipwreck.
In the recording, translated from Italian to English, Schettino is evasive when the Italian official orders him to oversee the rescue.
“Now you go to the bow, you climb up the emergency ladder and co-ordinate the evacuation,” the official tells the captain.
“You must tell us how many people, children, women and passengers are there and the exact number of each category,” he says.
“What are you doing? Are you abandoning the rescue? Captain, this is an order, I am the one in charge now. You have declared abandoning ship. There are already bodies,” the official says.
“How many?” Schettino asks, to which the official responds: “That is for you to tell me, what are you doing? Do you want to go home?”
In an earlier call, Schettino says he and other crewmembers can’t get on board “because the rear of the ship is keeling over.”
Schettino is finally heard agreeing to reboard. It is unclear whether he did.
Story originally published at USA Today