Italian investigators are probing the mystery of a young Moldovan woman who was reportedly on the bridge of the Costa Concordia cruise ship when it smashed into rocks off the coast of Giglio island, forcing the evacuation of its 4,200 passengers and crew.The 25-year-old blonde, identified as Domnica Cemortan, was invited onto the bridge as the cruise liner sailed perilously close to Giglio, in what was apparently a ‘salute’ to an old friend of the captain’s and a favour to the ship’s head waiter, whose family were from the island.
She was reportedly the guest of one of the ship’s officers and may be the woman that passengers saw drinking and chatting with Capt Francesco Schettino on Friday evening, a few hours before the Costa Concordia ran aground.
Italian judicial authorities, who are investigating the accident and the captain’s conduct, want to interview Ms Cemortan, who according to her Facebook page was born in Chisinau, Moldova, and lives in Bucharest, Romania.
They believe she may be able to shed light on what happened on the bridge when the giant cruise ship collided with a rocky outcrop, ripping a massive gash in its hull.Adding to the mystery, she was reportedly not on the official list of passengers and crews.
As news broke that Italian prosecutors wanted to talk to her, she apparently went online and changed her city of residence from ‘Bucharest, Romania’, to ‘Zanzibar, Tanzania’.Ms Cemortan was interviewed by a journalist from The Sunday Telegraph on Saturday at the Hilton Hotel in Rome’s Fiumicino airport, as the thousands of passengers who escaped from the ship started to fly home.
She offered a staunch defence of the captain’s actions, saying he had saved lives by steering the stricken ship towards Giglio’s tiny harbour and grounding it close to the shore.“Look at how many people are alive because of him. It’s a tragedy that people are missing, but he saved over 3,000 people on that ship because of his actions,” said Ms Cemortan.
She claimed that Capt Schettino was still on the bridge at 11.50pm.“I saw him there, before I managed to get off the ship. He did not abandon ship before everyone else. He would not have done that. He knows what his duty is.
“He is one of the best captains in the company. He is very skilful and experienced when it comes to manoeuvring the ship in enclosed spaces, like harbours.”It is believed that Ms Cemortan has worked for Costa Cruises in the past, as a dancer and passenger rep, but went on the cruise last week as a holiday.
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source:telegraph.co.uk
