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Report: Italian coast guard ordered cruise ship captain to return to wrecked ship
The captain of a cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Italy abandoned the boat after it capsized and was ordered by officials with the Italian coast guard to return to the ship, according to a report released Tuesday.
Radio calls between the ship, the Costa Concordia, and the captain, were released Tuesday and translated into English by Reuters. The captain reportedly left the scene in a cab after the cruise liner, which was carrying 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members, hit a rock off the coast of Isola del Giglio and turned on its side after it started to take on water.
The transcript reveals the Italian coast guard reacting angrily to the captain, Francesco Schettino.
"There are people who are coming down the ladder on the bow," the Italian coast guard official said on the recording. "Go back in the opposite direction, get back on the ship, and tell me how many people there are and what they have on board.
"You go back on board! That is an order!" the official continued. "There is nothing else for you to consider. You have sounded the 'abandon ship'. Now I am giving the orders. Go back on board. Is that clear? Don't you hear me?"
Schettino is now being detained by Italian authorities; it is a crime to abandon ship there.
Officials have increased the number of passengers killed in the crash from six to 11. About 30 passengers remain missing.
The lobbying group for the cruise industry, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), has said the Costa Concordia accident was a "terrible tragedy," but the group has said the cruise industry is safe and that incidents like the shipwreck in Italy are a "rare occurence."
