Rescue continues as anger rises at captain allegedly leaving ship and 'inexplicably' taking vessel so near rocks in first placeThe familiar accoutrements of a cruise holiday were all there: the sun loungers, the tennis court, and a towering water slide painted bright yellow and blue. But the tennis court was nearly vertical; the sunloungers were piled up against the deck rail, and the slide was jutting out almost horizontally into the channel, no more than 100 yards across, separating the stricken Costa Concordia from the rocks of Punta Gabbianara ("Seagull Point"). A bench was bobbing to and fro under the vast funnel.Strewn across the rounded granite of the headland yesterday was the tangible evidence of the terror that suddenly enveloped the vessel's 4,200 passengers and crew on Friday night, when it listed wildly to starboard, forcing some of those aboard to jump into the icy waters and swim for their lives to the rocks: a shoe here, a T-shirt there. Several hundred metres above, next to the 16th-century summer residence of an Italian count, was a pile of around 30 discarded lifejackets, flashing yellow and orange in the bright sun.The Guardian had scrambled down through the pinewood around the estate, the Mediterranean scrub below and on to the rocks to get the closest view possible of the stricken liner. Just yards away, fire brigade diving boats were manoeuvring on the landward side of the Costa Concordia as the search continued for survivors.Overnight, rescue workers had taken off South Korean newlyweds Hye Jim Jeong and Kideok Han, finally found after their screams were heard. Later on, coastguard divers found the bodies of two elderly men still in their lifejackets, raising the confirmed death toll to five, but six crew members and nine passengers remained unaccounted for.The coastguard commander, Cosimo Nicastro, said that emergency workers had not given up hope of finding more survivors trapped in air pockets below the waterline. All British passengers and crew were confirmed to have survived the disaster.Shortly after 1pm local time, a helicopter hovered over the vessel, and the third survivor of the day was plucked from the Costa Concordia ? nearly 38 hours after the ship struck the rocks. The man, 57-year-old Manrico Giampedroni, one of the ship's pursers, was strapped into a stretcher and hoisted up 50 metres into the helicopter to be flown to hospital on the mainland.Giampedroni emerged as one of the disaster's few heroes. He had helped load passengers into lifeboats before breaking his leg while searching the decks for survivors. Alone onboard, amid the rising water, Giampedroni called for help which only arrived many hours later after rescuers heard his voice from several decks away.Before flying him to a hospital at Grosseto on the mainland, the helicopter deposited Dino Salvatori, the winchman who had rescued him, on to the rocks to make his way back to the port of Giglio."We're trained for everything," said Salvatori, looking out at the gleaming white superstructure of the listing liner. "But that was pretty exceptional."Rescue efforts continued as new details emerged of the chaotic and panicked evacuation, and serious questions were raised over the conduct of the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, who was being held for questioning on suspicion of manslaughter and abandoning his ship.Preliminary indications suggest "significant human error" by the captain may have been to blame for the Costa Concordia cruise ship running aground, its owner Costa Cruises said in a statement.The vessel's course appeared to have been "too close to the shore" and Schettino's judgment in handling the emergency appeared "to have not followed standard Costa procedures", it added.It was reported that one theory Italian prosecutors are considering is that the captain's steering of the vessel as close as possible to Giglio was a way of saluting a colleague or retired colleague living on the island.Schettino has said the ship hit rocks that were not marked on his nautical charts, and that he did all that he could to save lives. He told Italian television he was not to blame for the ship crashing into rocks. "On the nautical chart it was marked just as water and some 100-150 metres (328ft-492ft) from the rocks, and we were about 300 metres from the shore. We shouldn't have had this contact," he said. "There shouldn't have been such a rock."Witnesses claim the captain left the ship between 11.40pm and midnight, while the last passengers left after 3am. According to the Italian navigation code, a captain who abandons a ship in danger can face up to 12 years in prison.One French survivor said he had seen Schettino in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket, well before all the passengers were off the ship. "Normally the commander should leave at the end," David Du Pays, a police officer, told the Associated Press.On Sunday night, Italian RAI radio reported that the ship's black box, discovered by rescue teams, had revealed the Costa Concordia was just 150 metres from Giglio when it struck rocks.A company spokesman said the Costa Concordia had sailed the route 52 times last year. But that added to the mystery of how navigators on board were unaware of the rocky outcrop that tore a hole in the side of the vessel. Schettino sailed so close to the rocks "that it was inevitable that this outcrop would be under the vessel", the investigating magistrate, Francesco Verusio, said.The Guardian had arrived on Giglio courtesy of the Italian coastguard, who took a small group of journalists on patrol vessel 305 for a high-speed journey out from the mainland port of Porto Santo Stefano. As we approached the island, we were able to get a close-up view of the seaward flank of the Costa Concordia. Going aft, there was first a deep scar penetrating the hull, then a stretch of buckled and twisted metal, and finally a deep gash running away from the water, in which a huge rock remained embedded.From Punta Gabbianara, it is easier to piece together the sequence of events on Friday night. Looking south, beyond the port, there is a rock jutting out of the sea about 100 metres offshore. Beyond that, tossed by foam, is another, smaller rock. Together, they are known as Le Scole.Local people say the two rocks are not alone. Following Italian tradition, the islanders have anchored two statues to the seabed near the smaller rock ? one of the Madonna and the other of Jesus. "And also below the surface, there is a very sharp rock," said Antonio Blanco, gesturing with his hands to depict a tall column. "People who have dived there say the top of the rock is 13 metres below the surface."He and other locals said the Costa Concordia, heading north past Giglio, appeared to have torn open its hull on the port side. Realising disaster could be imminent, the captain used anchors to turn the vessel, in what must have been a very short distance, and came to a stop off Punta Gabbianara with the bows pointing back towards the port and the gash facing seawards.Among the few to go aboard in the hours that followed was Giglio's deputy mayor, Mario Pellegrini, who went out on a tender. He told the Guardian: "When I got on board, it did not seem to be all that urgent." He said at that stage the vessel was more or less upright. "There wasn't any panic. Then it listed. It was at that point that the panic took hold," he said. "The problem was that there were 500 to 600 people on the side that tilted up, because the lifeboats could not then be launched from there."Behind him, on the seaward side of the liner hung two Day-Glo orange life rafts, while a third floated in the sea near the bows ? visible evidence of the chaotic evacuation. Nearby on the quayside, fire brigade divers were readying a jetski for the rescue effort. "We are continuing to search the ship cabin by cabin. We are working above the water line now and then we'll be moving on to search under the water," said one.The operation continued amid fears that the electronic locks on cabin doors, opened by cards with magnetic strips, had automatically locked shut during the blackouts on board the vessel as passengers clamoured to be allowed on to lifeboats. By late on Sunday afternoon, only a quarter of the vessel had been searched, according to one rescue official.At Porto Santo Stefano on the mainland, a team of divers from the voluntary organisation that rescues potholers in Italy had arrived and was preparing to join in the hunt for survivors.The search operation will resolve the question of whether anyone else has managed to stay alive aboard the stricken Costa Concordia.But one question remains unanswered ? why was the liner brought so perilously close to the rocks of Le Scole?"I don't know", said deputy mayor Pellegrini, shaking his head."It's inexplicable."ItalyEuropeCruisesJohn Hooperguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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