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• vor 23.02.2012 03:30

• Italian Investigators Expand Cruise-Ship Sinking Probe .

  Italian prosecutors have placed seven further employees of Costa Crociere SpA, operator of the shipwrecked Concordia cruise ship, under formal investigation in connection with the ship's ill-fated journey, the company and investigators said. Three company officials who were placed under investigation weren't aboard the giant ship when it ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, according to a statement by Costa Crociere, which is a unit of the U.S.-based Carnival Corp. The seven were added to a group of people—including the ship's captain—whom prosecutors are already investigating as part of their probe into why the ship struck a rock off the island of Giglio, sacoche louis vuitton causing it to founder with more than 4,000 people aboard. That collision and sinking caused the death of at least 25 people. Prosecutors are also investigating whether there were any unnecessary delays in the ship's evacuation. The move by prosecutors in the Tuscan town of Grosseto allows the seven people, who haven't been charged, to retain legal counsel before a special court hearing is held in early March to review the contents of the ship's black-box recorder for the first time. "We believe that placing other Costa personnel under investigation is simply due to the necessity for the authorities to provide such individuals with the guarantees afforded to everybody under Italian law," a statement from Costa Crociere said. A spokesman for Costa Crociere declined to disclose the names of the employees under investigation. The move came as Italian authorities found eight more bodies, including that of a young girl, inside the overturned Concordia on Wednesday, bringing the number of confirmed dead to 25 people. Seven more people remain missing but are presumed dead. The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, has been under house arrest for several weeks on preliminary charges of multiple manslaughter and abandonment of ship as the Grosseto prosecutors continue their investigation. Mr. Schettino has told prosecutors the ship struck a rock after he deviated from the its traditional route, steering the vessel close to Gilgio's shore. He has also testified to a judge that he didn't abandon the ship, but instead tumbled off the Concordia, into a life boat, while passengers were still aboard. Costa Crociere's CEO, Pier Luigi Foschi, has testified before the Italian Senate that Mr. Schettino phoned the company moments after the ship struck the rock and an hour before the evacuation alarm was sounded. That delay led to a disorderly evacuation with passengers jumping from the ship's decks into the cold sea. In its statement, Costa Crociere said it maintained "complete trust and solidarity" in the seven employees under investigation, adding that the firm was "absolutely confident in their professional competence and ethical correctness."

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