The official report into the Costa Concordia disaster has blamed Captain Francesco Schettino for the sinking of the ship, but also finds fault with the ship’s operator, Costa Cruises. Captain Schettino was blamed for a risky manoeuvre that ended when the ship ran aground. He now stands accused of shipwreck, manslaughter and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated. 
Thirty-two people died during the incident in January this year, when the vessel sunk off the island of Giglio on the Italian coast.
The report, sections of which have been leaked to Italian newspapers, also said that Roberto Ferrarini, fleet crisis co-ordinator at Costa, “seems not to have the pulse of the conditions of the ship”. When the captain told him three sections of the vessel were flooded, “he should have immediately told the captain to abandon ship”, the report said.
However, the report finds that “six minutes passed before Schettino announced a general emergency and around 27 minutes before he called for the ship to be abandoned”.
In its defence, Costa said that Schettino’s reports to headquarters were so delayed, partial and confused that it was very difficult to discern how serious the emergency was.
