Hopes fade for Concordia missing

Wednesday, 18 January 2012 11:05

Written by Editor

After emergency crews worked through the night at the wreck of the stricken cruise ship, local coastguard chief Marco Brusco said on Tuesday there was just a "glimmer of hope" that more survivors could be found. At press time, eleven people are known to have died after the Costa Concordia crashed into rocks off Italy's west coast on Friday night and 24 people were listed as missing.

They are thought to include four crew members, as well as passengers from the US, Germany, France and Italy. The ship's owners have blamed the captain for Friday's crash, saying he changed course towards the island of Giglio.

Captain Francesco Schettino, 52, has been detained on suspicion of manslaughter. The Italian media have published a transcript purportedly of conversations between the captain and the coastguard – apparently drawn from one of the ship's black box recorders – which appears to corroborate claims that the captain left the ship when only 40 of the 4,200 passengers and crew had been evacuated.

Capt Schettino has denied any wrongdoing and says the rocks were not on his charts. He has insisted that he and his crew were the last people to leave the vessel.