Cruise company CEO: Captain misled crew, us

(CBS/AP) 

Updated at 4:30 p.m. ET

ROME - The chief executive of the company that owns the Costa Concordia cruise ship says the captain who grounded it off the coast of Tuscany did not relay correct information to the company or the crew after the vessel hit rocks.

CEO Pierluigi Foschi told Italian state TV Friday his company spoke to the captain at 10:05 p.m., some 20 minutes after the ship was grounded but could not offer proper assistance because the captain's description "did not correspond to the truth."

Capt. Francesco Schettino only said he had "problems" aboard but did not mention hitting rocks.

Foschi said crew members were not informed of the gravity of the situation either.

The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it crashed and partially sank a week ago. Eleven people have been confirmed dead and 21 are missing.

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Schettino is under house arrest, facing possible charges of manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing a shipwreck after he made an unauthorized detour from the programmed route that caused the vessel to slam into a reef and capsize off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

Foschi's comments come a day after a young Moldovan woman who says she was called to the bridge of the stricken ship to help evacuate Russian passengers defended Schettino on Thursday, saying he worked tirelessly and "saved over 3,000 lives."

Domnica Cemortan, who says she was translating Schettino's orders during the frenzied evacuation, emerged as a potential new witness in the investigation into the officer's actions the night the ship ran aground.

Also Thursday, new audiotape of the doomed vessel's first communications with maritime authorities showed the ship's officers continued to report only an electrical problem for more than 30 minutes after hitting the reef. And an Italian television station made public amateur video showing a staffer of the cruise ship urging a hallway full of passengers in life jackets to return to their rooms.

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Inside the Costa Concordia wreck

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Attention has focused on Cemortan amid reports by crew and passengers that Schettino was seen eating dinner with a Russian-speaking woman at the time of the impact. The 25-year-old Cemortan speaks Russian and had worked as a hostess for the Italian cruise operator, although her contract had expired and she was vacationing with friends when she boarded the luxury liner hours before the Jan. 13 disaster.

"I saw him at the restaurant. He was with a blonde woman. He did not look drunk. They were just eating," a Filipino cocktail waitress, Gladly Balderama, said of Schettino.

Another Filipino crew member, Roger Barsita, said he served Schettino and a woman dinner.

"I have no idea who she is," he told The Associated Press in Manila. "Some of the waiters said she's Russian."

In interviews with Moldovan media, Cemortan said she was dining with "colleagues, so to speak" in the ship's restaurant when the ship struck the reef. She said she was summoned to the bridge to translate instructions for passengers, particularly Russians, since she speaks several languages. Moldova is a former Soviet republic.

"All our colleagues made announcements in different languages because there was a problem with the electricity. It was very dark on the ship," she told the Moldovan daily Adevarul. "I stayed on the bridge in case the captain needed me to make an announcement. There were about 20 more officers, cruise directors and the captain."

She defended Schettino and crew members against criticism of a chaotic evacuation, saying they saved thousands of lives.

"He did a great thing. He saved over 3,000 lives," she told Moldova's Jurnal TV.

Prosecutor Francesco Verusio declined to comment on Italian media reports that Cemortan was being sought as a witness, citing the ongoing investigation.

[smittyc]

The initial news reported the ship listing(tilted in the water) quite severely. The impact of hitting the rocks sent everyone on board flying including the crew. The passengers and the crew knew something was terribly wrong. The crew and the officers flat out lied to the passengers and compromised both their safety and cost peoples lives. Valuable time for evacuation was lost and the fact that the captain and the crew abandoned the ship shows that overall they are cowards and liars and could care less about the well being of the passengers. If the captain and the crew had done the job they assured all the passengers they would do in a time of emergency, the number of lost lives would have been less.

[Samlv]

Let's see.

Looks like they have 4,000 employees not on ships, about 10x that on ships.

11 companies.

About 25 ships? Let's say 30 to keep the numbers round.

That means, roughly, there are 140 employees on shore for every ship in the water.

Out of all of those, how many monitor ship systems in real time?

So, the CEO would have us all believe that they just had absolutely no responsibility to [insert anything] to ensure passenger safety?

Really?

[hypnotoad72]

The CEO's job is to cut costs, corners, and get bonuses for delivering profit.

It's up to the passengers to [anything] themselves.

It is a free market...

[bobnjersey]

[The chief executive of the company that owns the Costa Concordia cruise ship says the captain who grounded it off the coast of Tuscany did not relay correct information to the company or the crew after the vessel hit rocks]
------------------------------------------
who hired ... and gave command of this ship to ... this incompetent fool?

what other cowardice yahoos do you have at the command of the other ships in your fleet?

what methodology are you using to qualify someone for this important role ... a role that oversees the safety of thousands of people every day?

[myoleman]

This captain single-handedly caused this disaster by deviating from the established, safe route. He then compounded the problem by lying to everybody and abandoning the vessel. Of course, I don't think he ever envisioned the horrible consequences his reckless actions would have upon so many human lives. May the Lord have mercy upon the souls of all those hapless people who lost their lives in a such an unforeseeable manner.

[Samlv]

Excellent PR attempt. But, too well written to be just a regular post, so, try again, only next time make it sound more natural. Less like an attorney approved it.

[myoleman]

myoleman is no way connected to any party directly or indirectly involved, in any shape, way or form in the operation of this cruise ship. I am a real poster, a private individual. What I wrote is only my own personal opinion after reading several of the stories written about the incident. The Lord Jesus Christ be praised forever!

[rmaran]

I do not know all the specifics, however, I think if I were in the captains position I would already feel pretty rotten. It always seems like people need someone to hate and blame for all that goes wrong and it's usually the easiest to blame, whereas in the real world things are much more complex. He'll be held responsible for what he's responsible for but the whole thing is just really tragic no matter why it happened. However, if I lost someone I loved I would feel pretty angry regardless of who did what or why. I guess that's just one way we react. I just feel sorry for how bad that captain must feel.

[rmaran]

I take back what I said, he did seem pretty negligent. Maybe he should of put a little more tnought into his actions. It's scary to think of how people actually react under these circumstances. I'm not saying I would or would not blame the captain but he didn't seem to care too much about anyone else.

[sandiegopete]

I find it very difficult to believe that the Costa Concordia was not equiped with a GPS system to permitted the home office of Costa Cruises to know at any time the exact location of the vessel. Since the owner had to know the ship was so close to the island it should have been aware of the danger of running aground. At the first hint of problems the home office had obligation to ensure the safety of the passengers.

[mecanik-2009]

My thoughts too. The location should have been known by everyone. There should have been an immediate phone call when the ship strayed from it's programmed course.

[hypnotoad72]

Agreed.

This is the 21st century.

Not the 19th.

Something more is going on.

And not just damage control and bad PR.