National Post

Costa Concordia captain ‘cried like a baby’ after the crash; rescue operations suspended amid choppy seas
The captain of the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship “cried like a baby” as he hugged its chaplain hours after the Costa’s crash, the luxury liner’s priest said in an interview Friday.

Meanwhile, rescue operations were suspended on Friday due to choppy seas. Experts said the side of the ship was slipping off a rocky sea shelf at a rate of some 1.5 centimetres every hour towards the open sea.

Interviewed by French magazine Famille Chrétienne, Father Raffaele Malena said he was among the last to leave the ship at around 1:30 a.m local time on Saturday and then stayed “close to the injured” in the tiny harbour of Giglio.

“I descended on the rope ladder. I was picked up by a little lifeboat,” said Father Malena, who has returned to his village of Ciro Marina in Calabria.

“At around 2:30 a.m. I spoke to the captain (Francesco Schettino). He embraced me for about a quarter of an hour and cried like a baby,” Father Malena said. (Photo: Paul Hanna/Reuters)