Costa Concordia - Chronik einer Katastrophe (2021) - full transcript

We weren't worried -

the ship can't sink.

Hard to port!

Oh, my god. At that point...

..I said, "We're all going to die."

People crying,

the ship tilting more and more...

A few minutes after the collision

he knew that the ship was lost.

Affirmative, water keeps rising.

He was sure that the ship

would make it to port.

Tell them there's been a blackout.

I basically saw us in the water.

I looked at Sandra and said,

"Please, Sandra, don't do this."

At that point, survival instincts

told me to jump on the lifeboat.

Look, Schettino. You may have

saved yourself from the sea,

but I will absolutely ruin you.

Fucking get on board.

There was maybe 10, 20cm

of air above me, and I tried

to stay in the air pocket.

We were in the type

of hopeless situation

that you know you're not

getting out of.

32 people died.

32 casualties which should...

..they could and should have

been avoided.

- Hello?

- Yes?

This is De Falco from Livorno.

Am I speaking to the Captain?

Yes, good evening,

Commander De Falco.

Tell me your name, please.

This is Captain Schettino, Commander.

Listen, Schettino.

There are people trapped on board.

You will take your boat under

the bow on the starboard side.

There is a pilot ladder.

You will climb that ladder

and go on board,

and then you will tell me

how many people there are.

Is that clear? I'm recording

this conversation, Captain Schettino.

Commander, at this moment in time...

..the ship is tilted.

I understand that. People are coming

down the pilot ladder on the bow.

You will go up the same ladder.

You will get on that ship

and tell me if there are children,

women or people

in need of assistance.

And you will tell me the exact number

of each of these categories.

Is that clear?

Look, Schettino. You may have

saved yourself from the sea,

but I'll take y-it'll be really bad,

I will seriously ruin you.

Fucking get on board.

My name is Gregorio De Falco.

In 2016 I was chief executive officer

at Livorno Port Authority.

I co-ordinated Costa Concordia's

rescue operations,

keeping in touch with the shipmaster

and the Captain.

During that phone call

I tried everything

to beg that man to resume his role.

- Commander, please-

- No, please, get on board now.

I am here to co-ordinate the rescue.

What are you co-ordinating

from there?

Go on board! Co-ordinate

the rescue from on board.

- Are you refusing?

- No, no, I'm not refusing.

Get on board! This is an order.

I'm in charge now. Get on board!

Is that clear?

- Fine, Commander, I'm going now.

- Go, now!

A Captain must not abandon the ship.

That's why I told him, quite harshly,

to go back on board.

Had he gone back on board,

had he dedicated himself

to saving passengers,

things would have gone differently.

De Falco's order is...

..now famous all over the world,

but it was an impossible order

which only served a purpose

for the media.

It impressed people,

it created this general build up

of hostility towards Schettino.

I think De Falco did

the right thing, back then,

to be as harsh as he was.

There was no other way.

He might have been hard,

but actually,

De Falco was immediately...

..competent, and

I think he was the only one

that night

to have made Italy proud.

Because Schettino didn't make

us look good in front of the world.

Captain, did they

crucify you a bit too soon?

On that January 13th

I partly died too, in a way.

From the first hours

after the shipwreck,

until the last stages of this trial,

my head was offered

as a sacrifice, in a trial that

should have involved a whole company,

and instead sees me here

as the only defendant.

I believe Francesco Schettino was

the victim of

a ruthless media campaign.

Consider that

the first instance of the trial,

coincidentally

and quite symbolically,

was held in a theatre.

My name is Saverio Senese. I am

Francesco Schettino's defence lawyer

in his appeal proceedings.

Therefore I didn't have the chance to

represent him in the investigation

or the first instance of the trial.

My name is Francesco Verusio.

I was public prosecutor

in Grosseto in 2012,

and, together with my colleagues

at the prosecutor's office,

we prepared the case for trial

to establish the responsibilities

regarding the shipwreck.

Interviewing Schettino, at first

he struck me as someone who

didn't realise what had happened.

He didn't realise that

he'd left 4,200 passengers

to fend for themselves.

He only thought of how

he could protect his image

from people and from the company.

The Concordia? A dream.

Well, it was for me. I'd been

on a couple of cruises before,

but this was the most beautiful

cruise ship I'd ever been on.

You see the Costa Concordia

lying there, a gigantic ship,

and you're really impressed and

think it's going to be a great week.

We were going to visit many

lovely cities with this super ship.

Nothing better

could ever happen to us.

My name is Matthias Hanke,

and in 2012, I was a passenger

on the Costa Concordia

with my buddy Marcel.

I'm Marcel Zuhn, and for both of us,

it was the second cruise

we'd ever been on.

Thank you

for choosing Costa Concordia

for your holiday on the sea.

We wish you a pleasant journey

and a lovely cruise. Thank you again

for joining us. Welcome on board.

Let's hear it once more for

our Captain, Francesco Schettino!

Wonderful. It was a world, a city.

It was like a theatre,

built in wood, nicely decorated.

Enormous chandeliers,

even the lifts were gorgeous!

Anywhere you looked!

- Where are you?

- I'm here. At the lifts.

The lifts? Where?

My son took us that afternoon.

And he said to her, "Mum,

you've never been anywhere - are you

going to sink the ship or something?"

- The sun is very bright!

- Look at this, come here!

In our room the bed was nicely done,

the bathroom was lovely,

there was a small living room.

I immediately opened the window

and I saw the sea

and I fell in love with this ship.

Come and see!

My name is Daniela Prestano

and I boarded Costa Concordia

on January 13, 2012,

to join a hairdressers' competition.

My name is Luigi Catalli

and I boarded Costa Concordia

to accompany my wife.

The service was perfect.

All the shows there were perfect.

The bar staff, who worked endlessly,

were always friendly.

It was an all-round

successful holiday.

We'd spent the day in Rome,

then returned to the ship

in the evening,

freshened up, then went to dinner

and intended to get comfortable

in the bar in the atrium,

go over the week that had just gone.

And then it all started.

Good evening.

- Good evening, Captain.

- Good evening.

All right then.

Check what speed we need

to get out of here, and go by Giglio.

They're making me do

a sail-past salute at Giglio. OK.

Let's plot a course.

- Shall I write it on the chart, sir?

- Mm-hmm.

- Is half a mile all right?

- All right.

Yeah? From the port.

There's seabed anyway.

How long will it take to get there

if we leave at seven?

A couple of hours.

9:30, give or take.

OK, all right.

- See you later.

- See you later.

The "sail-past" was planned.

We were supposed to do it

the week before,

but for various reasons

it hadn't been done.

So that evening the information

in the handover was

that the course had been

slightly adjusted

to go give a salute to Giglio Island.

My name is Stefano Iannelli.

During the Costa Concordia shipwreck

I was on the command deck,

as an apprentice deck officer.

The "sail-past" is

a very ancient tradition

in sailing.

It's a crossing along the coast

that was done even

in ancient times to pay your respects

to a city or a monument.

The ship was supposed

to cross as close as possible

for everyone to see.

It's for publicity, in a way.

We went to dinner at 18:30,

took our seats,

and waited for our table companions.

They lived in Berlin

and were expatriates from

somewhere in the Soviet republics.

We took Russian at school,

so we sang

Russian folk songs together.

So we always had fun

at the evening meal.

Salute!

Santé, na zdorovie, cheers.

- Yes?

- Captain, it's Ciro.

- Yes?

- Six miles.

Six miles. All right, that's fine.

We should be by Giglio at 21:44.

21:44, OK.

My name is Sandro Cinquini.

I have been chief medical officer

for Costa Cruises for over 30 years

and I witnessed the whole tragedy

that night on January 13th.

I had heard that they were planning

on passing by Giglio Island.

I was in my cabin

and, out of curiosity,

I was looking out the window

around 9:00, 9:30,

to know what we would have

seen of Giglio.

Everything was dark, though,

so I was starting to wonder why

we were going through there at all.

Good evening.

Hi, Francesco. I'm not too late,

right? I have to finish the shift.

Hi, Antonello. We'll wait. It's not

like the island is going anywhere.

- All right.

- There's still half an hour.

Antonello, our waiter.

- Nice to meet you.

- My pleasure.

Well...

Schettino wanted to show he was good.

- Let's wrap it up and go.

- That night...

..Tievoli, the head waiter,

had asked him to pass by

Giglio that night, because

Tievoli's mom lived in Giglio,

and Tievoli wanted to say hello.

That's why Schettino moved closer.

Then there was Miss Cermotan.

There was something

romantic between the two.

Maybe Schettino made that decision

in order to impress Miss Cermotan.

Good evening.

Good evening, Captain.

What's the current speed?

15.5.

Hand-steering.

Copy that, hand-steering.

Rusli was the lookout.

At the time there was only one.

One person would be

both lookout and helmsman.

If it was deemed necessary

to switch to hand-steering,

this sailor would switch position,

turn off the auto-pilot,

so then the ship would

depend on the wheel,

and orders would be given

directly to the helmsman.

278, confirmed.

278.

How much now?

285.

Schettino always maintained that

he decided to go with hand-steering

thinking he was still

very far from the rocks.

After all, the tradition of

the "sail-past"

was quite a popular procedure,

and it had been

authorised by the company.

Have you called Palombo,

Antonello?

No, not yet.

Go on, call him.

Schettino went on the bridge

and said, "Hand-steering".

What he should have done

during such a procedure

is to place a lookout

on the deck wing,

to follow the nautical charts...

Instead he pretty much

sailed there manually.

And as he did this,

he called Palombo, an ex-Captain

he was acquainted with,

who was supposed to be at Giglio.

Yes, of course.

No, no, he's here. I'll put him on.

Mario.

Captain Palombo, good evening.

We're about to pass by Giglio.

Ah! You're not at Giglio.

You're in Grosseto.

According to Palombo, Schettino

was a very good Captain, technically,

but he was somewhat arrogant

towards his crew and his staff.

It was his way or the highway.

Even if we get to 0.3 or 0.4,

there's water underneath, right?

We are at 290.

OK, I understand.

We're all right, then.

Yeah, we'll make a bit of a fuss

and say hello to everyone.

All right, I'll speak to you later.

I take the con.

Master takes the con.

When he took charge of the ship,

he was already off-course.

Nonetheless, the officers

who were on the bridge

did not inform him

about the ship being off course.

So, unaware and oblivious,

he sailed towards the rocks.

Let's go to 16.

He dropped the course

that had been mapped by Canessa

and sailed a 300-metre ship

at 16 knots

without course and without...

..hand-steering like a speedboat.

Like... what can I say? Like a raft.

It's madness.

Come slowly, slowly to 310.

- Easy.

- 310.

Where do we need to go through?

In front of the docks?

Well, yes.

Captain Schettino was very strict.

When he entered

the bridge, we would fall silent.

It wasn't quite...

..fear, but it was always

quite tense,

it was... He was authoritative.

In hindsight, now that

I've sailed for eight years,

the worst mistake was

to not speak up,

to not say, "Captain,

maybe we're going too fast."

"Captain, we should

start to pull over now."

Because the speed was very high.

I knew the facts of what happened,

so the public prosecutor's office

asked me to cooperate

with the investigation.

So we went to Grosseto

every day for three months,

and we talked to

the main witnesses,

the company, everybody.

Under article 295 of our

navigation code, the Captain

bears final responsibility for

supervising the course of the ship,

but if the Captain is not there,

or somehow seems not to be fit,

not up to the task,

others have to take

the Captain's place.

It had happened recently -

December 17th, 2011.

When the ship was leaving Marseille,

although the wind was 60, 65 knots,

the decision to sail out to sea

was disputed by Ciro Ambrosio.

The ship's Captain

was very upset by this,

because everything in the bridge

is recorded.

So because of this situation

Ambrosio ended up being blamed.

The Captain is in command.

He's in charge and in command.

These officers,

mostly very young people,

didn't have the nerve,

they didn't have the experience

to cooperate with superiors,

even with critical thinking.

They didn't.

Because it wasn't allowed.

325.

315.

- 325.

- 325.

325.

I felt at ease.

There were competent officers around,

and an experienced Captain.

So I couldn't imagine

what was about to happen.

350.

- 340.

- 350.

350, otherwise we go on the rocks!

Then you see the person

that should be confident

starting to seem concerned,

raising their voice, all those signs

that make you go, "Wait a minute,

things are not going as they should."

Starboard 10!

Starboard 10.

Starboard 20!

- Starboard 20.

- Hard starboard!

Hard starboard.

We're obstructed on the left.

The stern is obstructed on the left!

That means that the stern

doesn't have a clear way to steer.

Whichever way it goes,

it will hit something.

- Port 10!

- Port 10.

Port, not Starboard!

The Captain immediately gave

the order to "counter", as we say,

so you turn the wheel the opposite

way from where the ship is going

in an attempt to drive the stern

further from the obstacle.

The speed was so high and the ship

had built up so much momentum

that the ship pulled over,

but not enough.

Port 20!

Hard to port!

Captain, we have to disengage here!

We have to close on the left

with the stern, Captain.

Did we hit a rock?

- Shut the watertight doors astern.

- Shut the watertight doors astern!

My god, what have I done...

It was about 9:30,

and we were in the bar.

And suddenly there was a jolt,

and everything on the table

started to slide off.

Yeah, it became totally unreal.

It was like driving a car

and suddenly applying the brakes.

Where are we going?

No, it's better you sit down.

I heard "brrm brrm brrm"...

..then a thud, then another.

Then the whole ship spun round.

Plates were falling. He immediately

said, "Let's get out of here."

We were the first to leave.

He knew there was something wrong.

At one point I heard a screech.

It sounded just like...

..a keel stranded in the sand.

I thought the ship had

got too close to Giglio

and that it must have

touched the seabed.

I would have never imagined

that there was

such a huge gash on the keel.

Mum, let's go!

There was a jolt.

So, we were in bed watching TV,

and there was a jolt.

We looked at each other, and thought,

are we already at the destination?

That can't be true -

it's too early.

We shouldn't be there

till the next morning.

And immediately the curtain became

crooked, so you could clearly see

that the ship was unbalanced

from the start.

My name is Sandra Birnstiel,

and in 2012, I was a passenger

on the Costa Concordia.

My name is Bianca Ziggert

and in 2012, I was on the

Concordia for the second time.

Then we waited, and we thought,

what we were told in the video,

that you should dress up warmly,

but that you should stay calm.

We were walking along the green pier

and looking up towards the horizon.

We saw this huge ship,

strangely close,

way too close to the island.

My name is Giorgio Fanciulli.

On the night of January 13th, 2012,

I was the first, with my friends,

to see the Costa Concordia

approaching the island

a few seconds after its collision

with the Scole rocks.

It's probably the sail-past again.

It should be further away.

Normally you would see lights

and flashes from the cameras.

That night there was none of that.

Then suddenly all the lights went off

and we lost sight of the ship

in the overall darkness.

It looked like a ghost ship.

Please remain calm,

and we'll keep you informed

as we have more news to inform you.

Thank you for your attention.

Blackout.

As we went up the stairs,

the lights went out,

and it was pitch black

for 20-30 seconds.

That's also when

you heard the first screams.

Of course, some people fell over too.

Then the emergency generators

turned the lights back on.

We were reassured.

And then, on Deck 8,

we looked down from our balcony...

And there were bubbles.

Air bubbles came up like crazy.

We couldn't explain it to ourselves.

We didn't worry -

the ship can't sink.

Everything was beeping.

Anything in the bridge

that could beep

in that situation was beeping.

I realised that we had hit something,

that there had been

a collision with something.

I didn't realise it was so serious.

At that time,

I think even my colleagues

didn't realise what the severity

of the damage would be.

What did we hit?

A rock, it was just above the water.

Get the blackout sorted.

What matters is that

we don't take in any water.

- Port 10!

- Port 10.

Port, not starboard!

The helmsman, Rusli Bin,

followed orders

given to him

in an emergency situation

incorrectly,

doing the complete opposite.

When Schettino told him,

"Turn left ten degrees,"

he turned right ten degrees.

According to Schettino, if he had

followed his orders correctly,

the ship would not have

ended up on the rocks.

When, actually,

during the pretrial hearing

it was proved that, at that speed,

the ship would have

hit the rock anyway, so...

Schettino didn't have

the proper resources

to get any consultants

who could have

attempted to fight back

the powerful army of experts

and consultants for the prosecution.

He was lucky Professor Neri

was there,

a renowned expert, someone...

..above any kind of bias, I must say.

His contribution was

clarifying facts.

We can see here what really happened,

the actual course of events.

We see here what would have happened

if, 12 seconds before

collision with the rock,

the helmsman had turned left

like Schettino ordered.

You see?

The rock glances,

and then the ship moves away.

Surely, even if it had touched,

the collision would have been

towards the stern,

and it would have involved fewer

compartments instead of all five.

Hand-steering.

Rusli Bin, before being a helmsman,

worked in maintenance,

a steward, even.

Schettino had even sent an email

to point out the issues caused by

the incompetence of

most of the members of staff.

But he was told that's what they had

and what he had to work with.

Even if the helmsman

had followed the order

and the ship had not

touched the rock,

even then, Schettino...

shouldn't have done that procedure.

It would have been interesting

to question the helmsman.

This was not possible because

the helmsman was allowed to...

..disappear,

to go back to his country.

We've never

been able to find him again.

Start the generator.

Say again?

The emergency diesel!

Start the emergency generator!

- Chief.

- Yes?

Have we taken in any water?

Yes, a lot. We can't go down.

- Where?

- In the engine room.

- Is it a lot of water?

- There's water. There's no way down.

We'll go down the other way.

Give me a moment, I'll start

the engines, I'll let you know.

Captain? Shall we

inform the passengers?

Yes. Tell them

there's been a blackout.

Tell me what's going on.

Where are you, what is it?

I'm in the engine room,

I'm having a look.

Ladies and gentlemen,

your attention please.

Due to technical problems,

we currently have a blackout.

I repeat, due to technical problems,

we currently have a blackout.

There is no reason to panic.

Please stay calm.

Our technicians are working on

a solution to the problem now.

I repeat,

we currently have a blackout.

But our technicians are already

working on a solution. Thank you!

Suddenly there was

a hullabaloo in the corridor.

We went out and wanted to

ask the boy some questions,

but he didn't really know anything.

It was really chaotic.

Then we said we'll pack a few things

together, and then we'll go out.

The first announcement was,

"Don't worry."

But first in

umpteen different languages.

That made us a little crazy,

until it got to German,

and it said that

the black box had failed.

Now we knew just as much as before,

because we didn't know

what that means on a ship like this.

As we walked back,

we noticed that the ship

was awkwardly tilted.

And there were two lights

on the main bridge,

two red lights turned on,

which means

the boat is out of control,

the vessel has no propulsion

and the rudder doesn't work.

Do you speak Spanish?

- Yes.

- Why are you wearing a life vest

- when everything's OK?

- Just in case.

- So everything's OK?

- Everything's fine.

- Then why?

- Just in case.

Crazy.

When the first alarm went off,

I went to the infirmary,

and we were there in this

small room, with the door open,

and we see the EKG cart

rolling past us.

My nurse,

who was a bit sharper than me,

said "The ship is tilting. We need

to start assessing the situation."

Then the announcement

said that the water was rising.

Luckily they had started to evacuate

floors B and C, where the crew lives.

Chief, can we turn on

at least one engine?

We haven't made it

downstairs yet, Captain!

We cannot access the engine room

from the starboard side.

There's water up to

the main switchboard.

Then we are sinking.

I'm not sure I understand.

Eh, yeah.

There's water up to the switchboard.

Excuse me, Captain.

We cannot start the engine.

The emergency generator is flooded.

I only want to know one thing.

Can the ship start or not?

If not, I have to drop the anchors.

We cannot start the engine.

The generator is flooded.

A few minutes after the collision,

he knew that the ship was lost.

It was a sinking ship.

You're standing on a sinking ship

about to go down

and you don't make sure

to put lifeboats at sea

and evacuate the ship,

evacuate all passengers?

Roberto, I screwed up.

I was passing by Giglio Island, here.

Captain Palombo told me,

"Come by, come by."

So I went and I struck

shallow water with the stern.

I'm dead. Don't say anything.

I'm dying.

Roberto Ferrarini

was the FCC in the company,

which stands for

Fleet Crisis Coordinator.

His job description would only cover

what's called first degree,

which mainly deals with

the financial side of things.

Good morning, Ferrarini.

So anything related to strikes,

staff issues, small malfunctions,

but nothing that entailed

any potential harm to passengers

or to the environment.

I did this to please this guy.

I sailed by,

and there was this little rock,

and now we're in the middle of

a blackout after hitting the stern.

The procedure states that command

must alert both the authorities

and the ship owner.

If the owner hears about it, then

it's up to the owner to let us know.

But we received no call

from Costa Cruises.

They probably thought the situation

was not serious enough

that they had to inform authorities.

I'm at the entrance.

Just a moment. Give me a breakdown of

all the flooded sealed compartments.

On board they knew well

that the ship was lost.

Because Iaccarino, an officer, was

sent downstairs to assess the damage,

and he said at least three adjacent

compartments were flooded.

We're tilting left. Water is up to

a metre, 1.5 metres from Deck 0.

Safety policy in these ships

makes sure the ship stays afloat,

so it's still considered "safe" with

two flooded adjacent compartments.

But with three compartments, the ship

must be abandoned. It's a dead ship.

I can confirm water is not rising,

the watertight doors are holding.

We're at one and a half to two metres

from Deck 0 on the left side.

So, Rob, listen to me...

We're not sinking, we're not sinking.

I'll drop the anchor in a moment.

We'll stay here, then we need

to get a tugboat to tow us away.

Up to a certain point, Schettino

was hoping to save the ship with

all its passengers and the crew.

He hadn't realised the severity of

the gash that had damaged the ship.

When he spoke to Ferrarini and said,

"Send us tugboats and helicopters,"

he was sure that the ship

could reach port.

There are rules at sea.

When there's an accident this bad,

everybody has a precise task.

Nobody did what had to be done.

Schettino, first and foremost,

did nothing.

He phoned Ferrarini to try

and find a way out of it somehow.

That was the truly unforgivable

thing about Schettino.

Where the fuck is the Captain?

Carabinieri.

Hello, yes, Carabinieri?

- Yes.

- Sorry, I'm home with some friends.

My friend's mum called us

to ask for help, because they are

on a Costa Cruise ship

and the ship hit something...

..they are all wearing life jackets.

- Who are we meant to call?

- Who should we...

- I didn't catch that, what happened?

- Oh, dear...

Sometime around

22:00, 22:06, I think,

we received a phone call from

a carabiniere in the town of Prato,

who informed the operating room

of the Livorno Captain

that a lady had heard

from her mother,

who was on board a cruise ship,

that there was

a blackout on the ship,

that objects were falling from

tables as they had dinner,

and that they had been asked

to wear life vests.

The staff in the operating room found

this ship to be stationary

at Giglio Island.

This ship was heading to Savona,

but the bow was pointing south.

And that was odd because, on the

one hand we knew that it was drifting

under the influence of

winds and currents.

On the other hand it was telling us

it was very close to the island,

therefore in

quite a perilous situation.

Costa Concordia? Costa Concordia?

This is the coast guard

from Circomare Porto Santo Stefano.

Do you copy on channel 16?

This is Costa Concordia, over.

Good evening, Costa Concordia,

can I ask if you have

any problems on board?

Tell them there's a blackout.

We are experiencing a blackout.

We are assessing it.

Do you need any assistance or

are you just staying put for now

- at Giglio Island?

- Roberto?

Affirmative, we're staying here

to assess the blackout.

What kind of an issue? Is it...

..the generator? The police

in Prato received a phone call

from a relative of someone

on board who said

everything was falling

in the dining room.

Negative, there is a blackout.

We are assessing the situation.

How long has

the blackout been going on?

20 minutes, more or less.

OK. Keep us in the loop.

We clearly heard

the first call from the coast guard

in Livorno to command.

From land we could hear screaming

from people wearing life jackets.

We heard the PA announcements

telling everybody to keep calm.

All of that didn't match

with a simple blackout.

I personally contacted the emergency

number of the Captain

to explain to them that

what they were telling

them from on board

was not accurate

as to what was happening.

The ship took that turn

purely by God's will.

The ship would have

completely tipped over

had the wind not taken it

towards the rocks.

4,200 people would have died.

The kind of panic on that ship...

People were terrified.

It was pretty much

"Every man for himself."

That night we were very, very lucky

that it so happened that

the Costa Concordia

was driven towards

the island of Giglio,

and then came to rest there.

Otherwise it would have been

a much, much bigger catastrophe.

We realised the danger,

and he said, "Let's go upstairs,

because I saw life jackets there."

So we walked up the stairs

for eight floors,

but we were so anxious

we forgot the cabin number.

And, after quite a while,

we found them.

- There was no info.

- No.

We packed a few things, and,

of course, put our life jackets on...

And then we went out.

Walking through the restaurant,

everything rattled and clattered.

I heard this rattling of dishes

for a long time afterwards.

There were shards everywhere.

You couldn't really walk right,

because there was broken stuff

everywhere. That was crazy.

Let's evacuate the crew

and passengers, too.

Why is Ferrarini not answering me?

Then we went down again...

Then more and more

people in life vests came,

and they just sat there, sometimes

howling, sometimes screaming.

A lot of people were already

standing at the muster station.

But, to us, there was no ranking,

and then we said,

"Perhaps we should get a life vest."

There were also a lot of children

on the ship, small Italian children,

with their mums. And eventually

we asked, where do we go?

First they said go to the front.

Then they said go to the back.

There were no more announcements

about what we should do,

so we thought, OK,

we must get outside to start with,

to see where are we, anyway?

Try to turn on the engines.

Is there no way we can

counter this drifting?

I'd been on a lot of ships

when I was in the Navy.

So we immediately went

upstairs to the fourth floor,

where they had lifeboats.

I started to prepare a lifeboat.

I was on my own -

nobody else was outside.

There were so few crew members.

I only saw one who came

with me in the lifeboat

to give me a hand.

It was a mess.

People screaming,

stealing your life jacket off you,

because there were

not enough jackets.

So they would say,

"Go get them in your cabin.

Keep calm."

People screaming, children crying,

water on the floor, people slipping.

Keep calm, for god's sake.

We were all arguing because

we could see how serious it was,

how the ship was tilting.

My name is Sabatelli Nada

and on the night of

January 13th, 2012,

I was on board Costa Concordia.

My name is Grattagliano Valentina

and I still have my card

to get in the cabin.

My name is Giuseppe Miccoli.

I am one of the ones

who brought lifeboats to shore.

The ship is

slightly tilted to the left.

I have no clue...

(CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY)

We went to the side that was rising,

and at that point

I phoned the carabinieri,

and they said I should

phone the coast guard,

and I said, "Wait... I'm asking

for your help, can you call them?"

He gave me their number,

and I called the coast guard.

They said,

"They told us it's a blackout."

So I told them, "Look,

I've worked on military ships,

where 'blackout'

means there's no power,

not that the ship is tilted

seven to eight degrees."

They go, "All right, just to be safe

we've already sent over three boats."

The deputy chief from Livorno

was suspicious. He said, "Chief,

they're not telling the truth."

I called the bridge again.

Only then does Costa Concordia

say that it's not just a blackout,

but they are taking water in.

So it's not just a blackout,

you also have a leak?

Yes, we do. Yes, we have a leak.

Do you want a tugboat or

some other type of assistance?

Is there anybody injured?

We request one tugboat.

All passengers are already

wearing life jackets.

My first reaction was a bit of fear.

Americans say we spend all our lives

preparing to deal with mass rescue

operations, but also

praying we never need to.

Because in these situations

there's always a price to pay.

The price is human lives.

The Guardia di Finanza motorboat

was not far from the location

so we redirected it to the scene.

Captain, we're just

about to approach you.

As soon as they arrive

and take a look at Concordia,

they say the ship is starboard down,

so the stern is on the seabed

or a rock.

They also told us they had

their starboard anchor down,

which meant that the ship was

in a position to lower lifeboats.

Why are they not

lowering lifeboats?

Affirmative. Water is rising to

stern elevators and keeps rising.

Water goes up to a metre.

I'll get in through the fire doors.

All right, Rob,

things are getting bad.

Not yet, not yet.

It's about 22:30. He still

hasn't given the distress signal,

nor the general alarm on board.

So obviously he hasn't

ordered abandon ship.

The crew stood in front of

the entrance to the lifeboats

and didn't let people in them.

Quite the opposite.

Then there was an announcement

by an employee,

"You should go to your cabins,

and don't panic."

On behalf of our Captain,

we kindly ask you

to go back to your cabin

or, if you wish,

you can go to the main hall.

Everything is under control.

OK?

Captain, passengers

are going to the boats.

Should we sound the general alarm?

Wait.

Many of them said, "Sound the

general alarm, sound the alarm."

And he was like, "Wait, wait."

To the last minute he tried to find

a way that HE could get out of it.

Knowing well that the ship was lost.

- We have to abandon the ship!

- Get out of there, go!

Order to abandon the ship!

All right, but give me

a second to call Ferrarini.

Roberto, everything is failing.

I'm at 0.2 from the island.

Ladies and gentlemen,

your attention please.

We ask you to stay calm,

and gather

at the meeting point

at the muster station on Deck 4

wearing your life jacket.

Follow the staff's instructions.

Please gather at the muster station,

the meeting point on Deck 4.

I just spoke to the steward

who's doing the announcements.

They are keeping everybody calm.

We are right in front of the island.

No pictures, no pictures.

And when we got to Deck 4,

it was rammed full,

and inhuman scenes

were already being played out.

People were running wild,

screaming, pushing.

You know, it wasn't

"women and children first".

They were acting like that.

I don't want to demonise anyone,

because this was

an exceptional situation,

but it was shocking to see -

there it was every man for himself.

And the conditions on Deck 4

were already very bad.

Costa Concordia, I am asking

if you are in distress.

- Are you in distress?

- What shall I say, Captain?

We are signalling distress

at the moment.

Tell them.

We are now

giving the distress signal.

Finally they give

the distress signal at my request.

If we'd waited longer, the rescue

teams would have been even later.

He sailed his ship

at 17 knots against the rocks.

It's no laughing matter,

there's no excuse, but

the ship is still afloat.

4,000 people on that ship.

30, 40, 50 sea units

outside are not enough.

These people need

to get off the ship,

and their fate is

in the hands of command.

If command on board does not

cooperate with outside rescuers

it's not going to work.

At first, one can imagine

getting lost in the moment, but

after more than an hour,

and the ship...

And you know

the ship is about to sink,

at what point do you

lower the lifeboats

and save all the passengers?

He didn't do any of that.

When clearer information

was delivered,

Schettino gave

the general alarm immediately.

He tried to get as close

as he could first.

Because, if he had given the order

when the ship was

still at a certain speed,

the lifeboats would probably

have tipped over.

Hundreds of people

would have died.

The right thing to do would have been

to conduct professional inquiries

through proper simulation processes.

My name is Mario Pellegrini.

On January 13th, 2012,

I was deputy mayor of Giglio Island.

I was just back from a trip to the

US, coincidentally on a cruise ship.

I was just about to

go to sleep, because

I was too jetlagged

the night before to go to sleep.

I received a phone call from the

Chief of the Giglio Island police,

and he said there was a ship in

distress just outside Giglio docks.

So I got my car

and drove to Giglio docks.

Once I entered the road that

leads to the east side of the island,

I couldn't believe my eyes.

This huge ship

aground on our rocks,

full of lights.

I kept driving because

I knew the way there by heart.

Or maybe my car

knew the road better than I did.

But I couldn't

keep my eyes off the ship.

Adrenaline started to pump,

and suddenly I wasn't sleepy anymore.

I reached the main square and

I left my car right in the middle.

I met with the mayor, who had got

there a few minutes before me.

So together

we started to take action.

We phoned anybody who could help,

we opened up schools,

we started

all the emergency procedures

we could manage

from the island.

We still didn't understand

what had happened.

Ladies and gentlemen,

your attention please.

Please proceed to your meeting point

at the muster station on Deck 4

and follow the instructions

of the staff, and stay calm.

When we heard the signals to abandon

ship, my partner, who is an expert,

said, "I've had enough."

He walked up to the guy

who was keeping everybody behind

a barrier, keeping everybody out,

shook him and said, "Get out of

the way, we're coming through.

We can't stay here anymore."

It had become a huge mess

all over the deck.

Seeing all those people running

around like headless chickens,

not knowing which one was

supposed to be their lifeboat,

jumping on

the first one they could find,

struggling, some slipping

on the deck, which was slanted.

So that was tragic in itself.

And I tried to say that we were

200 metres away from Giglio.

I was sure

we were in the open sea -

we hadn't seen the island at all.

We hadn't had the chance

to look in that direction.

We always saw the open sea.

Why didn't anyone think of

calming the passengers down?

So, if we lower the lifeboats,

can I say over the radio that

we're about to abandon the ship?

Wait. We are evacuating passengers.

Tell them,

"We are evacuating passengers."

We are evacuating passengers

ourselves and getting them to land.

He could not accept that he,

the Captain of the ship,

had to tell his passengers

to abandon the ship.

It was a dishonour to him.

He is very full of himself.

He would have never done that.

When I came back from trying to get

information that nobody gave me,

I found her right beside

the lifeboat. They were all ready.

She was just standing there.

I said, "What are you doing?"

"I'm waiting."

"What are you waiting for, get in!"

We got in and there was only

one seat left on the lifeboat.

The lifeboat steward

started to push it.

Since the boat was tilted like this,

and the lifeboats were here,

they got stuck on the deck below.

We swung it back and forth

and it rocked for a bit,

and then we started to descend.

I'm so scared.

Oh, my god. At that point I said,

"We're all going to die."

Plummeting from the third floor,

with 100 people on the lifeboat

it's like landing on cement -

everybody dies.

Thinking I was about to die,

I prayed.

Then in hindsight you feel

a bit embarrassed,

- thinking "Your last thought was..."

- Who cares? Nobody knew you.

"..only dedicated to God?"

To be honest, yes.

The Guardia di Finanza

was shining a beam light

to show us the gash on the ship

that was sucking everything inside.

My god...

I had never seen anything like it.

It was slashed,

like a razor blade had

sliced it open.

It was always, we must go to the

front, like other people had said.

There were still boats there.

And then it was, no, don't go there,

there are no more boats there.

I didn't even think of being scared.

We simply functioned.

I kept thinking, this isn't real,

what's happening here.

Help me!

The basic staff tried hard

to make the lifeboats seaworthy.

First they got the anchor out.

Anyway, it was the cook,

the waiter, the cabin staff...

Everyone possible was there, but no

officers - well, I didn't see any.

From our point of view,

they let us all down.

My career as a Captain is over.

We hit shallow waters with the ship.

We're following

the correct procedures.

I'm saving all the passengers,

it's fine.

Don't worry.

Everything is under control.

As apprentice deck officer,

my job in case of emergency was to

lead a "Tango-India" team

to rescue the injured.

So immediately after impact I left

the deck to look for the injured.

I was able to act on instinct

thanks to adrenaline.

Adrenaline kept me going

until I got to land.

Roberto, we are evacuating

passengers to land.

I managed to drift where I wanted to.

I dropped two anchors

right next to the docks.

The stern is in shallow water.

The ship is not going anywhere.

It can't go anywhere.

What do I tell the press?

This is the Livorno Captain.

Captain, we have a favour to ask.

Can you tell us how many passengers

are still waiting to be evacuated?

I think we pretty much

evacuated all of them.

More or less, give us.

The naval units need to know.

They need to organise

the dispatch of...

- So they can transport...

- Two or three hundred...

Two or three hundred between

staff and passengers.

Approximately 4,000

have been evacuated.

Is everybody leaving the ship

or is someone staying?

I'm staying because

we're close to the coast.

I think we are up against

the seabed at this point.

Because the water...

The keeling should stop by now,

thanks to the water, no?

- I mean, it shouldn't get any wor-

- So, is it just you staying...

- ..or is anyone else staying?

- I think it will be just me.

Only you, that's fine, Captain.

Take the documents,

come with me to Deck 4.

Are we abandoning the deck?

I didn't say to abandon deck.

Come with me.

As Captain, Schettino

should have stayed on the bridge.

He wasn't

supposed to wander around.

His job was to stay on the bridge

and handle all procedures from there

until the end, and he had to be

the last one to leave.

We saw the lifeboats

coming off this big ship.

When the first one reached port,

the mayor and I started

to help passengers get off.

We were asking for information,

but nobody was telling us anything.

I told him, "Boss, maybe

I should get on board."

He nodded and said, "Yes."

On my way there I was

looking at this ship, amazed.

The closer we got, the bigger it

was, the more it looked scary,

because you saw it

towering over you

as if it was

about to fall on top of you.

We stopped by the bow of the ship,

where there was a pilot ladder.

It was quite difficult to climb it.

Once on board, I went around

looking for an officer.

I tried to reach the bridge. I

walked around for about 20 minutes.

I didn't meet anybody.

When I got back down

to the right side

there were people,

including elderly people,

who needed help

to board the lifeboats

that were under the deck.

All these people came from

the other side of the ship.

So I told myself

I had to get to the other side

to take others to the right side.

At one point they stopped

lifeboats from descending

because otherwise they would have

been against the sloping keel.

So everybody needed

to get to the other side.

Because over there

they would be closer to water.

Whoa!

When all the lifeboats were gone,

the life buoys were thrown in,

that you have to inflate yourself.

And then there's a sort of mini hole

where you first get into the water,

and then you have to crawl.

And then I looked at Sandra and said,

please don't do this to me.

I could never do that.

Let's wait until we can

walk into the water, not jump,

because we don't know

what's underneath it.

And so we simply

waited for a long time.

I basically pictured us in the water,

I have to say, honestly,

and then a lifeboat came back.

And it veered

really close to the ship,

and then we could get in there

with dry feet.

Careful, careful, careful...

Guys, guys, please.

Maybe it was almost midnight

or just past midnight...

This boat shows up and suddenly

the inclination changed

quite rapidly.

So at that point we jumped,

we jumped on the boat.

I jumped, Salvatore jumped,

and Captain Schettino jumped, too.

We got on top of the boat,

on its roof,

and I noticed the Captain was there.

Deck 3 was underwater

immediately after, so...

..there was no way we could

go back on board from that side.

Anybody who had stayed

on that deck at that moment

would have ended up in the water.

And in the water,

with all the undertow

and the whirlpools

that could occur,

one was as likely to survive

as to not survive.

At that point, survival instinct

told me to jump on the lifeboat.

I can say I was very lucky,

because as soon as

I stepped on Deck 4

on the left side,

the boat started to topple.

And it tilted for a third time.

And it was tragic,

because this third tilt

meant that the deck

was underwater on one side.

The sound of the water was awful.

It came with such strength...

..it was unbelievable.

Fear had a grip on us all.

We were nearly at the other side,

and then the ship

did a massive jolt again.

And then the water came towards us -

there came a gigantic flood -

and panic broke out.

"Back, back, back!"

We had two old ladies by the hand.

We pushed and pulled them, and...

..It didn't work. I kept

slipping, Marcel kept slipping.

In the end we got stuck

by the lifts.

And in that moment,

when the water was waist high,

the lift doors opened.

Really burst open, really tore apart.

There was a short, violent scream

from one of the two ladies,

and then they were gone.

The women

had no chance at all.

Everyone near us who had not held on

was then washed away.

I didn't think

any but us had survived.

I was standing with this one woman

who held me tight and said,

"I don't want to die."

And I said, "You won't die -

you have a life vest on,

your head is above the water.

You don't need to be scared."

Yes, but in the lift,

or in the lift shaft...

That didn't work.

We no longer knew

what was going to happen.

The other side was now unreachable,

because it was too far away.

From our side the water was

getting higher and higher...

And then, logically,

panic rose up in us.

We were in

the type of hopeless situation

that you know

you're not getting out of.

At one point the ship stopped moving,

and by an incredible stroke of luck,

the full moon started to shine on us.

There must have been about

100 people on this bridge.

There was an unbelievable crowd.

I could see families,

people had children.

Everybody wanted to get on.

I said,

"You're behaving like animals.

Women and children

should go first.

Don't act like beasts."

And I hear a voice behind me

that, on the other hand, was calming.

"Don't treat them like that,

they're just scared, you see."

I turn and I see this man,

approximately 60 years of age,

a little overweight,

with a beard,

big eyes and big smile.

It was a moment of panic,

when panic strikes, there's no reaso-

They teach you this as well.

It was the same for the Captain,

he lost control. You never know

how someone might react

when panic strikes, even if you are

the trained Captain of a ship.

Even he fell into the trap of panic.

My name is Roberto Galli.

In 2012, I was chief

of local police in Giglio Island.

I am the first to have

found Francesco Schettino

on the night of the shipwreck.

We managed to reach the rocks

in front of the Concordia ship.

The people there had all jumped into

the sea. Some were injured.

There was even a disabled person.

They all gathered together

to warm up a bit,

because, even if it was a lovely

night, it was still January 13th.

I found five or six people

on that path.

One of them introduced himself

as one of the ship's officers,

and further away Captain

Schettino was on the phone.

So I approached Captain Schettino,

I introduced myself and

I said, "Look, Captain,

I can take you to the docks,

and from there I can

take you back to the ship."

He didn't look wet to me.

So he hadn't fallen into the sea.

The other officers,

on the other hand, were all wet.

The Captain said,

"No, look, I need to stay here

because I need to co-ordinate

the evacuation from the ship."

I was confused, and said, "You can't

co-ordinate anything from here."

A couple of officers said,

"Captain, why don't you

go to the docks and return..."

But he was determined to stay

and I couldn't make him

change his mind.

Hello?

This is De Falco from the Livorno.

Is this the Captain?

Yes, good evening, Captain De Falco.

Listen to me, Schettino.

There are people trapped on board.

You will take your boat under

the bow on the starboard side.

I think that, at the time,

Captain Schettino hadn't realised

what had actually happened.

He still hadn't processed

the massive damage,

the massive tragedy

that was occurring.

I am here to co-ordinate the rescue.

What are you co-ordinating, there?

The fact that he was saying,

"I need to co-ordinate

the rescue operations here,"

when in that area, from there,

nothing could be done,

shows his state of mind.

In fact, that was when

the famous phone call

took place, with Captain De Falco.

Fucking get on board!

- Captain, please.

- No, now you will get on board.

- Get on board.

- Fine, Captain.

- I'm going.

- Go now.

Schettino said, "Look, I was

keeping in touch from the rocks,

with port authorities

and the bodies responsible.

And I was co-ordinating

all the rescue procedures,

suggesting what side they should

approach the ship from,

where the survivors

were located, and so on."

And then he mentioned, actually,

that he had seen a boat

with a lantern, a light,

and he had signalled, asking if

they could take him back to the ship.

My name is Massimo Bancalà.

On January 12th 2012, I was

on board the motorship Aegilium.

We recovered 80 survivors

from the lifeboats.

I was later sent on the rescue boat

to see if there were any

survivors in the water

or to assist people struggling on

the right side of the Concordia ship.

Once we got there,

under the starboard side

we noticed two people

trying to get our attention

with lights. We approached them,

and one of them

was Captain Schettino.

He got on board the boat,

and, as they got closer to the ship,

unfortunately the boat

started to take on water.

So they ordered the sailors

to get back to the docks

and not to accompany Schettino.

It was bumpy.

Boats were going back and forth,

creating more waves

and we took on water twice,

so we risked sinking.

I think he would never have

been able to go back up,

because the ladder

on the left side

was full of passengers

in the process of getting off.

So it would have been tough

to climb back up.

The Captain was very quiet.

He was quite upset because

he knew what was going on.

I think he was frustrated because

he couldn't get back on the ship.

Schettino didn't run away.

He was not "Captain Coward"

who abandoned ship.

He was the last one

to get off the ship,

and he had to get off. Had he not,

he would definitely have died.

He also tried to get back on

the ship, but he was not able to.

It was not possible.

Everybody says that, as prosecutors,

we were very mean to him.

When actually

we investigated everything

there was to find out,

very thoroughly.

There was no way anybody

but Schettino was to blame

for what happened.

We were the only

hospitality facility open that night.

We already had two guests

who had gone to sleep.

My name is Paolo Fanciulli.

I own the Hotel Bahamas.

That night we welcomed

hundreds of survivors,

and the last of them

was Captain Schettino.

When I saw the ship sinking, I ran to

the hotel and turned the heating on,

turning on all the lights,

getting all rooms prepped.

Then I saw a huge crowd coming,

all in orange, because they were

still wearing their life jackets

and nobody wanted to take them off.

It wasn't very cold,

but we were all dressed lightly

because we came from the ship

where it was warm.

This is no joke.

People everywhere, people everywhere.

A church full of people

with life jackets on...

The church was full. Children in

bathing suits, people without shoes.

After all, nobody carried

anything on them. Nothing.

They started to enter the rooms,

at least 30 to 40 at a time,

packed like sardines.

I had no more space to offer them,

but they kept coming.

A hotel, a pharmacy...

People from Giglio Island

were just...

Some gave out jackets, dresses.

They were wonderful.

We gave them everything we had.

We gave them drinks.

Anything we had, we were out of

in only a few minutes.

We tried to give them blankets

but we didn't have enough.

They ripped off curtains

to cover themselves.

They took whatever kind of cover

and they took it with them.

There weren't that many blankets.

Only a few. By the time we

got there they were gone already.

In the end, you felt lucky,

because you heard

that there were people

who still had to get off,

some were saying

that others had died.

In the end, you stop thinking

about yourself, right?

He was on one side, I was

on the other side. Then we could

look again, and then we said,

"From now on, every man for himself."

This powerlessness that we felt,

this fear of death that rose up,

overwhelmed us,

naturally, made us say,

"We won't pay attention

to the others now,

because right now

we're not getting out."

Every man for himself.

And that is... totally brutal.

In the end the water poured in.

At first the water was knee-high,

then waist-high,

and it got ever higher.

And there was perhaps

10-20cm air above me,

and I tried to

stay in this air pocket.

And then I thought to myself,

"Hold your breath,

and see where it takes you."

At some point

I got hold of the handrail,

and then, like on a pull up bar,

metre by metre...

..I moved myself to the aisle.

And you're totally broken

after 3-4 metres.

It was an infinitely long time,

till at some point

I was heading in

the direction of the deck.

Then I dived and

was flushed into the restaurant.

Then I could grab hold somewhere.

Then I climbed up,

so at least I was in the dry.

Then I held on tight

to the structure, and then,

step by step, climbed up.

And then I was

lying on the outer hull.

And I have to totally honestly say,

with every sound I heard,

with every movement the ship made,

I always somehow felt fear

that the Costa was completely

sinking. So being saved,

rescued or whatever,

wasn't in the picture.

I called, again and again, "Help!"

At some point I heard a voice. "Hey,

mister, come here. Here is an exit."

And then I saw two people,

and I swam in that direction.

With the last of my strength,

I tried to get out of the water,

then we crawled along a shaft.

Yeah, and then we could look,

look upwards,

and we saw the sky.

But you couldn't climb higher there,

because it was stainless steel.

And then suddenly

someone looked through the hole.

We saw people screaming for help

from the depths.

I could hear water coming.

I immediately looked for a rope,

and slowly but surely we pulled

nine people from that tunnel.

It was incredibly tiring.

I helped the last young man out.

He said he had seen the bodies of a

child and an adult in the restaurant.

And then we all

started to talk about the tragedy,

saying, "Who knows

how many of them there were?"

In the end, I was crawling along

the outer hull

and then I saw that

there was a stepladder there.

And then we climbed down

the stepladder one at a time

and onto this small boat.

I saw the coastguard,

that there were lights over there,

there was an island over there.

And I couldn't believe my eyes,

because nobody

had told us about that.

We helped hundreds of people

off the ship,

down the ladder,

while the coast guard

recovered people from the sea.

Getting all those people

to climb down

that night was very hard.

Firstly, because it was slippery,

because it was wet.

Secondly, because only one at a time

could climb down, slowly,

because if someone slipped,

it would have been

40 to 50 metres of free fall.

So, helping people down,

keeping them calm,

Um...

After the scare they got,

it wasn't easy.

I got to the island at about 16:30.

The first thing I saw was

a huge sea of life vests.

All the life vests were in a heap.

And naturally my biggest concern

was, did Matthew make it?

There was an unspoken fear

visible in every face,

that something had happened,

that someone hadn't made it.

Naturally, I also felt that,

and so I kept looking.

Can I see him anywhere?

Then I saw him

standing on the footbridge.

I was so happy.

I was weak at the knees.

I really broke down,

and then waited, sitting down,

until we docked.

Then I got down from

the coastguard's boat.

I don't think I've ever

wept so much in my life.

Yes, it affected me a lot.

Then, afterwards, when you think

about everything that happened,

and the worse things

that could have happened...

Yes... In any case,

I was very happy that both of us

got off so lightly -

that we were so lucky.

Others weren't as lucky.

Between 8:00 and 9:00,

everybody left.

After they all left,

Captain Schettino arrived

and asked me if I could get a coffee

with plenty of sugar for him.

I could tell he was very upset.

His face looked very tired,

very disheartened.

I was surprised, though, because

you could see the ship from

a window, here on our terrace,

and he said,

"That rock had no markers."

It almost seemed like he was

trying to absolve himself.

It gave me a bad feeling,

because I realised he was

someone on the brink of

a nervous breakdown.

But at the same time he had

that swaggering vibe about him,

telling me that

the rock was unmarked.

As if the rock was to blame.

At a first glance Schettino

struck me as someone

very arrogant, very...

Quite full of himself, I must say.

Sometimes I almost

felt sorry for him, but...

I mean,

his culpability was so blatant

that I don't understand how

he thought he could hide behind

other possible scenarios

that he claimed were possible.

Schettino tried any way he could

to get out of this mess.

I believe Francesco Schettino

was a victim of

a ruthless media campaign

that immediately showed

him to the world

as a cowardly

and incompetent Captain

who, after making his ship sink,

abandoned his crew

and passengers

without fulfilling the role that

he was bound to carry out by law.

The judges were good, however.

In my opinion,

they had been influenced by

what has been, from day one,

the image of a scapegoat

painted by the press

all over the world.

..sentence him

to the overall sentence of

16 years of detention,

in addition to

the costs of proceedings.

I remember perfectly that, back then,

we sent 12, 13 people to trial.

All of them, except for Schettino,

settled or opted for

abbreviated proceedings.

Had he gone

for abbreviated proceedings,

he would have

cut a third off his sentence.

I cannot understand why

he would go through a trial.

Maybe he thought, somehow,

in the end, he would be acquitted.

He never admitted to any wrongdoing.

Right up until the end he even

maintained he never abandoned ship.

We turned to the European court,

protesting the influence that,

through every stage of

this situation,

the media had.

We asked the European court

to look into it,

to investigate if, as we fear,

the power of suggestion

caused by this media campaign

was the leitmotif on which

everybody based

their view of Schettino's trial.

It's true that survivors end up

carrying something with them.

You carry it with you.

To this day, we say, "It's been

ten years. What more can we do?"

Because you could have

died that day, right?

I keep going,

I've kept going through the years.

Sailing,

and making use of this legacy,

to improve myself,

to understand people.

The worst experience of my life

helped me to grow.

When I hear helicopter blades,

I often think about it...

And dishes rattling - that's me.

That's definitely stuck with me.

I'm not startled anymore,

but when I hear it,

I connect it with this disaster.

For me, the first year and a half

were really hardcore,

because I also had

a compromised immune system.

So I took everything I could with me,

and was also, psychologically,

really very, very battered.

But now ten years have passed,

and I've put it in perspective.

Especially the two women

who put their trust in us

and didn't make it.

That is an absolutely terrible,

terrible feeling that one has.

We really did do our best. We

were with them for almost two hours

on board, while we went,

step by step, through the ship.

We cheered them up,

entertained them.

I think, too, we

couldn't do anything else,

but, nevertheless,

you have the feeling

that you've failed,

and that you couldn't do it.

Sometimes terrible tragedies happen,

and in this case...

..uh, it was terrible.

But there's always something

spiritual to help you get through.

All these unlucky people,

me included.

Had the wind been different,

the ship could have ended up

a long way from the island

and it would have completely sunk.

Had that happened,

we would have counted survivors,

not victims.

Costa Cruises declined to give

an interview for this documentary.

In a written statement, the company

expressed sympathy with the victims.

One doesn't want to comment on the

Italian legal processes in this case.

After the disaster, the International

Association of Cruise Lines

worked out a series of

security procedures

that go beyond

the international requirements.

The procedures on board

are also said to have been revised.

This includes the right for all

officers to have a say in manoeuvres.