Head lance accused, ‘shoes melted on hot sheets’
(ANSA) – BARI, 07 JUN – “It looked like the apocalypse, a scene that I hope in my life I will never see again, people climbing on anything, because their feet were burning, the soles of their shoes melted on the hot metal plates , a maddened crowd “. This is the dramatic story of Francesco Romano, 37, from Trapani, during the hearing of the trial on the sinking of the Norman Atlantic ferry, which in the night between 27 and 28 December 2014, off the Greek coast, after a fire that broke out on board , caused the deaths of 31 people and the injury of 64 passengers.
Romano is one of the 24 defendants, with the shipowner who owns the ship Carlo Visentini of the Visemar company, the two legal representatives of the Greek company Anek Lines, the charterer of the ferry, the commander Argilio Giacomazzi and 19 other crew members. To them the prosecutors of Bari Ettore Cardinali and Federico Perrone Capano contest, for various reasons, the crimes of negligent cooperation in shipwreck, manslaughter and multiple culpable injuries as well as numerous security violations. The trial is held in the Bitonto bunker classroom. Romano today answered the questions of the defender, the lawyer Cesare Fumagalli, and of the prosecutor’s office. On the ship, with the qualification of second mate, he was lance chief. That is to say, it was he who prepared and lowered the lifeboat that was lowered into the sea during the fire with about 80 passengers on board, compared to the 150 it could contain, without having been ordered to abandon the ship. (HANDLE).