According to the experts called by the court in Grosseto to comment on possible causes of the sinking of the Costa Concordia, some control systems were damaged four days before the accident that killed 32 people. They stated that black box was also damaged and impossible to make exact reconstruction of what happened during the disaster.
Maintaining the black box provided on the day after the accident, obtained by mail by prosecutors investigating the behavior of the captain Francesco Schettino and any liability of the vertices of the company, is reporting a failure on January 10 and as agreed with the company that took care of maintenance, the decision to intervene for repair on January 14. Too late, Concordia ended her trip on January 13.
Bruno Blacks Professor of Telecommunications at the University of Pisa Elettornica stated: Some moments such as the abandonment of the ship are not registered.
Experts also stated that at the time of the accident Concordia was traveling with watertight doors open and unapproved maps.
Through surveys, it is possible to reconstruct in detail the ship's course, in those dramatic moments, and voice communications between the master and crew members.
The reconstruction of the events of that evening also uses the stories of hundreds of witnesses, especially passengers and crew members. As to the fact that it appeared at 22:36 the black box has not recorded anything more, the prosecutor considers it not relevant because "now at that hour there was nobody at the dashboard - said Verusio -. They were all gone away, you hear only the ringing of alarms on board. " Both the captain Francesco Schettino, and other official at that time were elsewhere.”
Costa Cruises defense, reply was: "The black box had reported only an error code that did not mean at all that the VDR appliance is not working." "There is no rule or convention who requires that in a situation, the ship can not sail."
As for non-approved nautical charts Costa explains: "The ship was equipped with all navigational charts, paper and electronic, necessary to carry the itinerary, as will be shown after the crash. It's up to the commander to follow the travel plan that he lay down. But what is worth remembering that the ship should never have been sailing so close to the coast. "
