Costa Concordia: investigators probe role of young Moldovan woman on cruise ship

They believe she may be able to shed light on what happened on the bridge when
the giant cruise ship collided with a rocky outcrop, ripping a massive gash
in its hull.

Adding to the mystery, she was reportedly not on the official list of
passengers and crews.

As news broke that Italian prosecutors wanted to talk to her, she apparently
went online and changed her city of residence from ‘Bucharest, Romania’, to
‘Zanzibar, Tanzania’.

In interviews with a Moldovan television station, Jurnal TV, and a Moldovan
newspaper, she said she was having dinner on the ship “with friends” at
21.30 on the night of the disaster.

She was later invited up to the bridge – it was not clear whether to enjoy the
spectacle of the ship performing a “sail past” of Giglio or later, to help
broadcast announcements to passengers in Russian.

Evacuating the stricken liner was a terrifying experience, she said. “It was
dark. I found an exit by finding fluorescent lines that guided me. I could
hear all sorts of objects falling. People were screaming.”

She managed to get off the boat at 23.50 on Friday night. “The captain was
still on deck,” she said.

Francesco Verusio, the chief prosecutor in the case, was not available for
comment but a spokesman said he “could not confirm or deny” that Ms Cemortan
was being sought for questioning.

Ms Cemortan was interviewed by a journalist from The Sunday Telegraph on
Saturday at the Hilton Hotel in Rome’s Fiumicino airport, as the thousands
of passengers who escaped from the ship started to fly home.

She offered a staunch defence of the captain’s actions, saying he had saved
lives by steering the stricken ship towards Giglio’s tiny harbour and
grounding it close to the shore.

“Look at how many people are alive because of him. It’s a tragedy that people
are missing, but he saved over 3,000 people on that ship because of his
actions,” said Ms Cemortan.

She claimed that Capt Schettino was still on the bridge at 11.50pm.

“I saw him there, before I managed to get off the ship. He did not abandon
ship before everyone else. He would not have done that. He knows what his
duty is.

“He is one of the best captains in the company. He is very skilful and
experienced when it comes to manoeuvring the ship in enclosed spaces, like
harbours.”

It is believed that Ms Cemortan has worked for Costa Cruises in the past, as a
dancer and passenger rep, but went on the cruise last week as a holiday.

Calm seas enabled Coast Guard and fire service divers to return to the
stricken ship on Wednesday, as the mother of a missing five year old girl
begged rescuers to keep up the search for her daughter.

Susy Albertini also appealed to other passengers on the ship to come forward
if they had any information about where the little girl was last seen,
during the panic-stricken evacuation of the vessel by its 4,200 passengers
and crew on Friday night and early Saturday morning.

“Please continue looking for my little girl, bring her home to me as soon as
you can,” Mrs Albertini told Italian television in a heartfelt plea.

Her lawyer, Davide Veschi, added: “We ask anybody who was in that part of the
ship and who managed to get out, if they remember having seen a little girl
and her father slip.

“We would ask them to come forward and give precise indications to divers in
order to aid them with more targeted searches.”

Dayana – the youngest person missing from the disaster – was with her father,
William Arlotti, 36, and he too is missing.

Her parents are separated and so were not together on the cruise liner.

Mr Arlotti’s new partner, Michela Maroncelli, 36, who survived the evacuation,
has reported seeing them both slip and fall into the sea. They have not been
seen since.

The death toll so far is 11, with at least 20 people still missing.

Francesco Schettino, the Italian cruise liner captain accused of abandoning
his stricken vessel with passengers still trapped on-board claimed he left
the ship only because he “tripped” and fell into a lifeboat while trying to
help with the evacuation.

Schettino, 52, told investigating magistrates that the Costa Concordia was
listing so violently there was nothing he could do to get back on board once
he had tumbled off and into the safety of a rescue craft.

He admitted however, that he made a “mistake” as he approached the island of
Giglio to perform a “salute” for a friend, turning too late and ending up in
shallow water where the liner struck a rocky outcrop and eventually
capsized.

An off-duty captain who stepped in to help co-ordination the evacuation spoke
out yesterday to condemn Mr Schettino’s actions, describing the disaster as
“a heartache that I will carry with me forever”.

Colleagues meanwhile, accused the beleaguered Italian
captain, who has vowed never to go to sea again, of
treating the 1,000ft long vessel “like a Ferrari”
and
said he was an over-exuberant “daredevil”.

Mr Schettino, who was being kept under house arrest in Meta di Sorrento near
Naples on Wednesday, was interrogated for three hours on Tuesday about the
disaster which has claimed at least 11 lives, with 22 people still missing.

Pressed by magistrates on why he had apparently abandoned the stricken ship,
he reportedly said: “I was trying to get people to get into the boats in an
orderly fashion. Suddenly, since the ship was at a 60 to 70 degree angle, I
tripped and I ended up in one of the boats. That’s how I found myself there.”

He said he got stuck in the lifeboat for an hour before it was lowered into
the water off the coast of Giglio island.

A short time afterwards he was seen ashore, leaving an estimated 300 crew and
passengers, including children and elderly and disabled people, to fend for
themselves. Also with him in the lifeboat was Dimitri Christidis, the Greek
second-in-command of the Concordia and Silvia Coronica, the third officer,
according to Italian reports.

Mr Schettino told investigators he took the cruise liner to within 0.28
nautical miles of Giglio to perform a “salute” to a former Costa Cruises
captain named Mario Palombo.

“… I made a mistake on the approach. I was navigating by sight because I knew
the depths well and I had done this manoeuvre three or four times. But this
time I ordered the turn too late and I ended up in water that was too
shallow. I don’t know why it happened, I was a victim of my instincts.”

The judge, Valeria Montesarchio, said the Mr Schettino had not made “any
serious attempt” to return to the vessel “or even close to it” after
evacuating.

The off-duty captain who was forced to step in and lead the evacuation broke
his silence on Wednesday
.

Roberto Bosio, 44, the captain of one of the Concordia’s sister ships, the
Serena, said: “Only a disgraceful man would have left all those passengers
on board. It was the most horrible experience of my life, a tragedy, a
heartache that I will carry with me forever.” He added: “I just want to rest
and forget. Don’t call me a hero. I just did my duty, the duty of a sea
captain — actually the duty of a normal man.”

Martino Pellegrino, one of the officers on board the Costa Concordia, joined
the growing condemnation of Mr Schettino. “If I had to make a comparison, we
got the impression that he would drive a bus like a Ferrari,” he said.

Mario Palombo, a former Costa commander and colleague of the captain, said:
“I’ve always had my reservations about Schettino. It’s true, he was my
second in command, but he was too exuberant; a daredevil. More than once I
had to put him in his place.”

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