The Italian authorities have now broadened their investigations into the grounding of the Costa Concordia to include seven other people, four officers on the Concordia and three employees of Costa, one of whom is the company’s head of crisis management.
Costa issued a statement saying, “We have complete faith in the judicial system and have offered our fullest cooperation to the authorities from the very beginning.
“We have no doubt that the professionalism of our company, as well as the ability of our onboard and ashore people to cope with this extraordinary emergency will be recognised.”
Maybe the last sentence is just a little optimistic.
As we have said from the beginning, even if the crash can be blamed on the dangerous behaviour of the Captain, Costa and its senior staff will have an uphill job to explain how such a person could be left in sole charge of the ship. If junior officers stood by while the Captain took risks and if the company was already aware of the Captain’s maverick style, then the “professionalism” of the company – and that of its owner, Carnival – is going to be seriously called to question.