Maritime Injury Lawyer Blog
Francesco Schettino, the Costa Concordia ship captain accused of causing the accident on January 13, 2012 was released from house arrest yesterday. Click here for MSNBC news article.
He is charged with multiple counts of manslaughter, causing the accident and abandoning ship prematurely. A strict component of his house arrest prevented Schettino from communicating with anyone besides his lawyer and close friends. Now that the house arrest has been lifted, however, the AFP reported that Schettino made a statement to the media claiming that a “divine hand” guided him and saved lives.
“A divine hand surely touched my head . . . If I had continued on that path the ship’s prow would have hit the rock. It would have been carnage.”
Further, Schettino denies that the tragedy, which took the lives of 32 passengers, was caused by own mental state at the time of the crash. In a letter to his lawyers and published by Italian Media, Schettino says:
“There are those who say the impact with the stern was caused because I was suffering from a hallucination. What hallucination! It was rather my instinct, my skills, the ability to know the sea and suddenly change direction.” Click here to read more of Schettino’s statement.
Schettino is alleged to have caused the disaster by sailing too close to the shore, causing the Costa Concordia to slam into rocks and capsize with over 4,000 passengers on board.
