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January 17th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
He also faces accusations that he defied an order from the coastguard to
return to the ship to supervise the evacuation after climbing into a
lifeboat while hundreds of people remained aboard.
The chairman of the Costa Cruises company, Pier Luigi Foschi, laid the blame
for the disaster squarely on the shoulders of the captain yesterday, saying
he had made an “unapproved, unauthorised” deviation from the agreed route.
He had allegedly steered the 114,500-ton vessel to within 150 yards of the
shore as a favour to the head waiter, Antonello Tievoli, whose family live
on Giglio.
Mr Tievoli’s father Giuseppe said: “Antonello called and said that we should
look out of the window at around 9.30pm because he would be on the ship and
it would pass right by Giglio and we would see it. All the ships do it but
they never come that close.”
The head waiter was invited on to the bridge where the captain reportedly
said: “Come and see, Antonello, we’re right in front of Giglio.” He realised
the ship was dangerously close to submerged rocks, and told Mr Schettino :
“Watch out. We’re very close to the shore.”
His warning came too late and shortly after 9.40pm passengers heard a
“terrifying groan” as the 1,000ft-long ship was torn open and its cabins
were plunged into darkness by a power failure.
Rose Metcalf, a 23-year-old crew member from Wimborne in Dorset, said: “The
sound was absolutely unbelievable. A groan is a very, very apt description.
“There was absolute panic. It was just terrifying, it was a case of just
trying to keep people calm. People were white, people were crying,
screaming.” Yet from the bridge, Capt Schettino was insisting there was
nothing to worry about. He told the 4,200 passengers and crew there had been
an electrical fault, and sailed on as the ship started taking on water.
By 9.45pm it was listing by seven degrees, and it was becoming clear to the
passengers that something was badly wrong. Some made mobile phone calls to
relatives, one of whom alerted their local police in Tuscany, who raised the
alarm with the coastguard in Livorno.
At 10.06 the coastguard radioed Mr Schettino, who said it was a blackout and
was under control. At around the same time, the captain contacted Costa and
told them there was a problem.
Ten minutes later, the coastguard radioed again, and this time the captain
admitted the ship was taking on water, but insisted there was no emergency.
It was 10.30pm when, under pressure from the coastguard, he sent a mayday. The
ship was now listing by 20 degrees.
The order to abandon ship was given 20 minutes later, too late for at least
six passengers who are now known to have drowned on-board.
Miss Metcalf said helping passengers into lifeboats had been a “long process”.
“We were literally throwing each other, we were creating human chains to try
and pass people over gaps that if they dropped down there was no recovery
from,” she said. “What was vertical was becoming horizontal.”
Miss Metcalf had started writing a farewell to her mother before she was
winched to safety by a helicopter.
The captain had clambered into a lifeboat at 11.40pm, ahead of women and
children. An hour later he told the coastguard he was “co-ordinating the
rescue” from the shore. He said: “There are only 200 people left on board.
But I’m not in touch with them, I’m in a lifeboat.”
Aghast, the coastguard ordered him back to the ship. Mr Schettino failed to
comply. He faces up to 12 years in jail if convicted of manslaughter and
abandoning ship before his passengers.
The head waiter’s father said: “We rushed down to the harbour where they were
bringing all the passengers and crew and at first we couldn’t find him then
he called and asked us to bring him some dry clothes.
“It’s obvious the captain made a huge mistake by coming so close.”
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