Cruise captain caused crash that killed 33 people onboard after ‘trying to impress a woman’

Francesco Schettino was dubbed ‘Captain Coward’ after fleeing the Costa Concordia in a lifeboat while the rescue remained ongoing

The cruise captain who was responsible for the Costa Concordia disaster was alleged to have crashed the ship while trying to ‘impress his lover’.

A lot of lads have gone to great lengths to woo a woman, but most men wouldn’t dare put the lives of more than 4,000 people at risk just to show off.

Francesco Schettino apparently didn’t get this memo though, as 33 passengers and crew members were tragically killed due to his decision.

The former shipmaster, from Italy, currently remains behind bars as he was ultimately convicted of manslaughter, causing the Costa Concordia crash and abandoning his passengers.

He began serving his 16-year sentence in 2017 after exhausting the appeals process, meaning he is now halfway through the jail term.

Schettino – who was dubbed ‘Captain Coward’ after he abandoned the sinking ship – claimed that he had simply wanted to dazzle holidaymakers on that fateful day in January 2012.

The 64-year-old was the skipper on the seven-day Mediterranean cruise, which had departed from Civitavecchia, near Lazio, on the Italian coastline.

A few hours after leaving the port on 13 January, 2012, the luxury liner was close to the holiday island of Giglio and Schettino decided to try and give his passengers a glimpse of the place.

However, this ‘sail by’ – which was also accompanied by a maritime salute, where the ship’s horn is sounded to locals – meant that the Costa Concordia deviated from its planned course.

So, those onboard had no idea that an outcrop of rocks were in the ship’s path, and although Schettino eventually yelled at the crew to reroute the vessel, it was too late to save it.

A huge 35-metre gash opened up on the side of the Costa Concordia upon impact, while gallons of water began rushing in – flooding the engine room and causing the ship to tilt.

It partially sank after landing unevenly on an underwater ledge, but Schettino didn’t hang about to see the damage, as he hightailed it out of there on a lifeboat which he later claimed he had ‘fell’ into.

It’s safe to say that he made a series of devastating mistakes while captaining the Costa Concordia.

But according to Schettino, being distracted by a young Moldovan dancer was not one of them – despite claims suggesting that this was the reason for the crash.

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His alleged lover, Domnica Cemortan, who was 24 at the time, confessed that she had been having an affair with the captain in court.

According to the BBC, prosecutors said he steered too close to the island to show off to Cemortan.

But the dancer said she could not have distracted Schettino as the crash took place, because she was standing ‘very far’ away from him, the Daily Mail reported.

But during his court testimony, Schettino insisted it was his passengers who he actually wanted to please and he claimed that the sail by was for ‘commercial reasons’.

The captain said he had three objectives – to give his passengers a show, salute a retired captain who lived on Giglio and to satisfy the ship’s head waiter, who was from the island.

“I wanted to kill three birds with one stone,” Schettino said, while explaining that he didn’t think it was necessary to inform the ship’s owners, Costa Crociere, about the diversion as it was considered ‘an approach’ rather than a ‘touristic route’.

An investigative report into the disaster, carried out by Italy’s Ministry of Infrastructures and Transports, found that the vessel was ‘sailing too close to the coastline’.

The ‘poorly lit shore area’ and the Costa Concordia being at an ‘unsafe distance at night time and high speed (15.5 kts)’ also played a part in the fatal incident, the report stated.

Ultimately, 33 people lost their lives in the disaster and the body of the final victim was only recovered two years after the incident in November 2014.

Schettino and members of his team were ultimately charged with multiple offences, including manslaughter, following the Costa Concordia disaster.

It is estimated that the total cost of the ship sinking sits somewhere around $2 billion (£1.56 billion).

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