Angry survivors attend 1st hearing on shipwreck

FRANCES D'EMILIO TRISHA THOMAS Associated Press Published:

GROSSETO, Italy (AP) -- The first hearing of the criminal investigation into the Costa Concordia's shipwreck was held in a theater Saturday instead of a courthouse because of high demand, with angry survivors seeking compensation, justice and the truth.

The judge at the hearing assigned four experts to analyze the cruise ship's data recorder and ordered them to report their findings in July, confirming predictions by Prosecutor Francesco Verusio that examination of the data, as well as of conversations involving officers on the ship's bridge, could take months.

Prosecutors must decide whether to seek a trial against the captain, other top officers and officials of Italian cruise company Costa Crociere SpA, which is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp. Crucial to their decision could be what the experts determine are such details as the Concordia's velocity when it slammed into a reef the night of Jan. 13 off Giglio island, its exact route and what commands were given by whom and when.


"Today is just the beginning," said Francesco Compagna, a lawyer for some passengers and an injured Russian crew member, Irina Nazarova. "It is the first day. We don't expect quick things but we think that the investigation must follow in all the directions," said the lawyer.

The shipwreck killed 25 people, and seven other are missing and presumed dead. Captain Francesco Schettino is accused of abandoning ship while many of the 4,200 passengers and crew were still aboard during a confused evacuation.


Survivor Sergio Ammarota, among those who entered the hearing, said he wanted to know "exactly how it (the crash) happened and why the captain ... could have carried out such a maneuver."

Compagna added that lawyers are trying to determine "that it was not the first time that the Costa boats used to go very close to the island."

Schettino has previously claimed that the reef, which appears on many tourist maps, wasn't on his navigational charts. Schettino is also accused of abandoning ship while many passengers and crew were still aboard, and struggling to escape. Some of the passengers and crew jumped into the water and swam to shore after the Concordia's tilt made it impossible to lower all the life boats.


Costa Crociere has distanced itself from Schettino, contending that he made an "unauthorized" maneuver that took him perilously too close to the island. It has said that only once, in August, was the cruise ship allowed to sail close to Giglio, because of a special occasion on the island.

A lawyer for Schettino -- who is accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship -- slipped into the theater through a backdoor. Schettino, who is under house arrest in his home near Naples, denies wrongdoing and didn't attend the hearing.

Schettino's lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, later told reporters that the captain expects that the black box exam will "further confirm what he already told investigators."


"The compensation that has been proposed to our clients absolutely is not in line with the damage suffered," lawyer Michelina Suriano said. The Italian news agency LaPresse quoted Suriano as saying her clients were offered €11,000 (about $15,000) by the cruise company.

Much of Saturday's hearing was devoted to just who will allowed by the court to attach lawsuits to the case.







Among those present Saturday was the Italian cruise company itself. "We are an injured party, we lost a ship," Marco De Luca, a lawyer for Costa Crociere contended.

Another lawyer representing passengers -- Giuseppe Grammatico -- is also a survivor. Grammatico told reporters that some passengers, including himself, seized the initiative to be evacuated, because orders weren't forthcoming from the ship's officials.

"Just think, our lifeboat was lowered into the water because we insisted that it be done without an order from the captain," Grammatico said.



"I can understand the Costa Allegra's fire," angry Concordia survivor Patrizia Bagnasco, who came to the hearing, said. "But for the Concordia, we're talking about an unexplainable human error," LaPresse quoted her as saying.


Frances D'Emilio reported from Rome.