Captain of Costa Concordia Given 16 Years for Wrecking Cruise Ship
The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship which sank off the coast of Italy has been found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
The BBC reports that prosecutors originally wanted to sentence the 54-year-old Francesco Schettino to 26 years in jail. In all, Schettino was found guilty of manslaughter, causing the accident, and abandoning the passengers in his care. Schettino received a 10-year sentence for the manslaughter charges, a five-year sentence for causing the accident, and one year for abandoning the ship before its evacuation was complete.
The Costa Concordia sank Jan. 13, 2012 when it hit rocks after Schettino took the vessel too close to shore off the island of Giglio, Italy. Schettino said that he did so in order to make his passengers happy. The prosecutors contended that he was actually trying to show off for his girlfriend, who was at the helm of the ship with Schettino at the time of the accident.
The accident led to a crazed evacuation of the ship's 4,000 passengers. After all was said and done, 32 people lost their lives.
Schettino is not the only ship employee to have received a prison sentence as a result of the accident. The BBC notes that a number of crew members were sent to jail after the incident. Five crew members received prison sentences of varying lengths, ranging from 18 months to two years and 10 months.
The ship spent more than two years lodged in the waters off Giglio as engineers tried to figure out a way to right the ship and pull it away from the Italian coast in an effort to avoid any further environmental damage. The operation to right and move the ship cost more than $1 billion.
