Costa Concordia accident witnesses testify at captain's trial
Rome (CNN) -- Prosecution witnesses at the trial of Capt. Francesco Schettino painted a picture of chaos aboard the Costa Concordia on the night the cruise liner sank, as they testified Tuesday in Italy. The cruise liner capsized after it struck rocks off Italy's Giglio Island in the Tyrrhenian Sea in January 2012, killing 32 of the 4,200 people on board.
INTERACTIVE: How ill-fated cruise liner was raised from Italian seabed Schettino faces charges of manslaughter, causing a maritime disaster and abandoning ship with passengers still on board. He denies wrongdoing. Among several key witnesses Tuesday, on the second day of prosecution testimony against Schettino, was Moldovan dancer Domnica Cemortan, who dined with the captain and was with him on the command bridge at the time of the accident. Cemortan, who boarded the ship as a passenger but had worked on another Costa Cruises ship captained by Schettino a few weeks earlier, conceded under questioning that she had been romantically involved with him. Everything seemed normal at first on the bridge, she told the court, but then she heard Schettino giving orders, and then "speaking angrily, yelling, to another officer" and telling him to obey the order. She heard the alarms go off on the bridge, triggering chaos and confusion. She heard a call from the engine room that "water had entered the ship." The dancer left the bridge with Schettino and crew member Ciro Onorato, she said, following them around the vessel because she wasn't sure where they were going.
They ended up near some lifeboats, where "it was very slippery," she said. She and Onorato helped other passengers for about half an hour while the captain returned to the bridge, she said. Then Onorato pulled her into a lifeboat that also held other crew members. The boat hung over the side, and some panicked passengers fell into the water, she said. Cemortan said she has suffered psychological issues and taken medication to deal with the mass media attention after the wreck. She is also a party to the civil case against the captain. Disappointed by captain's actions Onorato, who had dined with the pair, earlier told the court he was disappointed by Schettino's handling of events during and after the accident. Under cross-examination, Onorato was quizzed about Schettino's movements around the cruise liner and about how they both came to leave the ship. Onorato gave the same account as Schettino has given -- that the ship was falling on top of them and that they had no choice but to "fall" into a lifeboat.
INTERACTIVE: How ill-fated cruise liner was raised from Italian seabed Schettino faces charges of manslaughter, causing a maritime disaster and abandoning ship with passengers still on board. He denies wrongdoing. Among several key witnesses Tuesday, on the second day of prosecution testimony against Schettino, was Moldovan dancer Domnica Cemortan, who dined with the captain and was with him on the command bridge at the time of the accident. Cemortan, who boarded the ship as a passenger but had worked on another Costa Cruises ship captained by Schettino a few weeks earlier, conceded under questioning that she had been romantically involved with him. Everything seemed normal at first on the bridge, she told the court, but then she heard Schettino giving orders, and then "speaking angrily, yelling, to another officer" and telling him to obey the order. She heard the alarms go off on the bridge, triggering chaos and confusion. She heard a call from the engine room that "water had entered the ship." The dancer left the bridge with Schettino and crew member Ciro Onorato, she said, following them around the vessel because she wasn't sure where they were going.
They ended up near some lifeboats, where "it was very slippery," she said. She and Onorato helped other passengers for about half an hour while the captain returned to the bridge, she said. Then Onorato pulled her into a lifeboat that also held other crew members. The boat hung over the side, and some panicked passengers fell into the water, she said. Cemortan said she has suffered psychological issues and taken medication to deal with the mass media attention after the wreck. She is also a party to the civil case against the captain. Disappointed by captain's actions Onorato, who had dined with the pair, earlier told the court he was disappointed by Schettino's handling of events during and after the accident. Under cross-examination, Onorato was quizzed about Schettino's movements around the cruise liner and about how they both came to leave the ship. Onorato gave the same account as Schettino has given -- that the ship was falling on top of them and that they had no choice but to "fall" into a lifeboat.
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