Dominica Cermotan Defends Captain In Costa ConCordia Sinking

By: Pat Prescott
01/20/2012 12:33 PM ET

25-year-old Costa employee Dominica Cermotan has emerged as a person prosecutors would like to interview in the case against ConCordia Captain Francesco Schettino.

Cermotan who was a hostess for the cruise ship, was not on duty during the shipwreck of the Italian coast last week, but was called to the bridge from her diner to help in the translation of evacuation instructions of some Russian passengers.

Since the accident Schettino has been vilified for his apparent actions surrounding the incident and his actions afterwards. However, Cermotan has been stating to Moldvan media and on her face book that Schettino was a hero and did not intentionally abandon his ship.

“He did a great thing, he saved over 3,000 lives,” she told Moldova’s Jurnal TV.

On her Facebook page, she also states she was with the captain, other officers and the cruise director, shortly after the incident occurred. She said knows Schettino was on deck till at least 11:50 pm, just over 2 hours after the ship crashed into the reef, coordinating the evacuation, that is when he ordered her onto one of the lifeboats.

Meanwhile other crew members have been returning home and speaking to media outlets saying that the captain waited too long to sound the alarm and there where orders or instructions on how to conduct the evacuation causing a chaotic scene.

“They asked us to make announcements to say that it was electrical problems and that our technicians were working on it and to not panic,” French steward Thibault Francois told France-2 television Thursday. “I told myself this doesn’t sound good.”

Source: Dominica Cermotan