Rescue halted on fears stricken ship could slip

The judge investigating Italy’s Costa Concordia disaster said the captain had shirked his responsibilities, as divers yesterday halted the search for survivors on the increasingly unstable wreck.

Instruments indicated the ship had moved... for the moment we cannot even go near it

Judge Valeria Montesarchio released Captain Francesco Schettino from police custody into house arrest despite noting he had made no “serious attempt” to rejoin the stricken vessel to take charge of evacuating the remaining passengers.

Rescuers were forced to suspend their search as the vessel shifted.

Emergency workers fear that the ship could slip from its resting place on a rocky shelf and slide into 100 metre (330 feet) deep waters.

“Instruments indicated the ship had moved, we are in the process of evaluating if it has found a new resting point to allow us to resume. For the moment we cannot even go near it,” emergency services spokesman Luca Cari said.

A German woman listed among the missing is alive after returning home in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, an Italian official said yesterday.

Gertrud Georgens has already gone back to her country, a local official in the Tuscan regional capital Grosseto told local media.

The body of a Hungarian musician who worked aboard the vessel was identified yesterday as being among the remains of five people taken from the wreck on the day before, the last bodies recovered before the search was suspended.

Hungary’s Blikk newspaper said the musician, identified by authorities as Sandor Feher, had gone back on board the ship to retrieve his violin amid the chaos of the evacuation on Friday night.

Divers, mountain rescue teams and marines have recovered 11 bodies from the turbid waters of the half-submerged hulk in the days since Friday.

Another 20 passengers and crewmen are unaccounted for; their relatives huddled in hotels in the area anxiously waiting for news of their loved ones.

“We will not stop as long as we are certain that no-one is remaining aboard the ship,” said coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini.

In his first comments on the disaster, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said during a visit to London: “Any such disaster could and should be avoided.”

He added that the Italian government was trying to limit any damage to the environment from the ship, lying on its side off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

The 114,500 tonne, 17-deck behemoth was insured for €395 million, industry sources said yesterday.

An insurance industry source who did not want to be named said it is already possible to speak of the Costa Concordia as “the biggest maritime disaster ever for the transport of passengers or goods.”

Captain Schettino – described by one Italian newspaper as “the most hated man in Italy” – faces years in prison on charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship.

The fact that other crew and officers stayed on board to try to evacuate the passengers refuted the captain’s claim that he could not oversee the operation from the vessel, Italian media quoted the judge as saying after she questioned him at length on Tuesday.

She said Mr Schettino had made no “serious attempt” to get back on board his ship, “or even close to it”, after leaving during the evacuation. She also noted that once he had left the ship, he remained for hours on the rocks with crew members watching the rescue operation.

Explaining her ruling, she said she did not think Mr Schettino posed a flight risk but she did believe he could try to conceal evidence, which is why he needed to be under house arrest.

Mr Schettino arrived at his home in Meta di Sorrento near the southern city of Naples around 2 a.m. (0100 GMT) accompanied by police officers.

Inhabitants of the village closed ranks around the sea captain. They lashed out at photographers and cameramen gathered outside Mr Schettino’s home, accusing them of “media lynching” of the captain who “saved thousands of lives.”

Under Italian law he will not be allowed to leave his home or communicate with anyone apart from his lawyer and very close family.