Costa Concordia Preliminary Hearing Begins
The Week, a London print magazine, reports a 270-page technical analysis to be presented this week lists five main reasons for the disaster.
The captain of the Costa Concordia during the voyage when it struck rocks off the Italian island of Giglio and rolled onto its side, killing 32 people in all, attended a preliminary hearing hearing Oct. 15 in Grosseto, Italy, along with a pack of lawyers preparing to argue for damages from the cruise line. Capt. Francesco Schettino and eight other defendants in the case were present during the hearing's opening day, CNN reported.
Schettino was unhurt and reached the island on a lifeboat after the ship ran aground. The Week, a London print magazine, reported Oct. 15 that a 270-page technical report to be presented this week lists five main reasons for the disaster. One that may relate to the cause is that Schettino apparently relied on a map at 1:100,000 scale, which the magazine's Andrea Vogt describes as "satisfactory for open seas but not for sailing close to land, where a 1:20,000 scale map is required. The rock the ship hit was not marked on this map."
Vogt writes that Schettino knew two minutes after the ship struck the rocks that all six engines were flooded and the ship had lost power, but he did not give the order to abandon ship until an hour after it struck and the ship was listing severely.