Costa Concordia cruise liner owner seeks damages

THE owner of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia has asked a court to consider it a victim of the disaster, saying it too wants to seek damages for the 2012 grounding off Tuscany that killed 32 people.

Costa Crociere SpA, a unit of Miami-based Carnival Corp, made the request as the court in Grosseto, Italy, yesterday opened a preliminary, closed-door hearing into the grounding and whether to issue indictments against the captain and crew.

In Italy, civil cases are heard alongside criminal ones.

In the criminal part of the case, prosecutors want Captain Francesco Schettino to stand trial for alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all the 4,200 passengers and crew had been evacuated.

They want four other crew members and a Costa manager on land to face charges of having botched the emergency.

Capt Schettino ordered the ship taken off course on 13 January 2012, to bring it closer to the island of Giglio as a favour to friends.

But the ship hit a reef, leaving a 230ft hole in the hull and causing the liner to capsize. Passengers recounted a harrowing and delayed evacuation.