Captain Coward fled from sinking cruise liner Costa Concordia leaving 300 passengers and crew to their fate

Schettino (centre) faces 20 years in prison for his part in the maritime disaster off the island off Giglio. Others were also at fault, the report found

Three hundred passengers and crew were still on the sinking cruise ship Concordia as its captain made his escape, the official report on the tragedy has revealed.

Among other damning revelations in the 176-page dossier is that the coastguard were not alerted to the incident until they were phoned by a passenger’s mother.

Half an hour after the collision, Captain Francesco Schettino had yet to put out a distress signal.

Captain Francesco Schettino was at the command of the cruise liner in January 2012 when it hit rocks off the coast of Tuscany and sank, killing 32 people

Captain Francesco Schettino was at the command of the cruise liner in January 2012 when it hit rocks off the coast of Tuscany and sank, killing 32 people

But by this time a mother of one of the passengers had informed police of an accident, after receiving a call saying that the ship was in blackout, a ceiling had collapsed and those on board were putting on their life jackets.

Some 32 people died when the Costa Cruises liner ran aground off the Italian island of Giglio in January last year, hours after leaving Civitavecchia on the first leg of a cruise round the Mediterranean.

A catalogue of errors by 53-year-old Schettino are documented in the dossier into the disaster by the Italian maritime authorities.

The captain caused the collision by sailing too fast, too close to shore, and he was distracted by people who had no business on the bridge, it found.

He had failed to consult large-scale maps, and used the wrong landmark on the island to turn the ship. He then delayed sounding the general alarm, and when he did eventually speak to the coastguard, downplayed the seriousness of  the incident.

The report appears to demolish Schettino’s claim that he saved thousands of lives by steering the ship into shore, saying the crash caused the rudder to fail. Instead, a detailed chronology reveals how he left his 4,228 passengers to fend for themselves.

Read More