Q: Can you give us an update on the cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Italy earlier this year? Were all the victims ever located?
—Alice Fink, Tucker
A: A theater in Grosseto, Italy, has been turned into a courtroom to accommodate everyone who needs to be in attendance in the closed-door trial of Italian cruise ship captain Francesco Schettino and eight others accused in the wreck of the Costa Concordia on Jan 13. Schettino is accused of manslaughter in the deaths of 32 passengers when he took the ship off course and it ran aground near the Tuscan island of Giglio. He's also facing charges of causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship with passengers still aboard in the trial, which began Oct. 15, according to The Associated Press. Costa Crociere, a division of Carnival Corp., fired Schettino in July and has denied that it was negligent. Divers had recovered 30 of the 32 bodies by May and the other two are presumed dead. There were 4,200 passengers on board the 950-foot ship, which is still on its side in the water near Giglio. At 114,500 tons, the Costa Concordia is twice as heavy as the Titanic and the salvage operation will be the largest operation of its kind and is expected to cost at least $400 million, according to published reports. It might take eight months to raise the ship, and that operation might not start until next June.
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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