Divers suspend search of stricken Italian liner - Salt Lake Tribune

Florence, Italy • The Italian Civil Protection Agency said on Tuesday that deteriorating safety conditions had forced divers to suspend the underwater search for missing people in a wrecked cruise ship off the island of Giglio.

The ship, the Costa Concordia, struck a reef on Jan. 13, keeled over and foundered just offshore, with the loss of at least 17 lives.

A formal decision to call off the search is likely on Wednesday, rescue officials said.

Sixteen people are still listed as missing from among the ship's complement of more 4,200 passengers and crew. But the agency said that conditions in the submerged parts of the vessel, which is lying at a steep angle on rocks in relatively shallow water outside Giglio's tiny port, were too dangerous for rescuers to continue work there.

However, the agency said in a statement, rescuers would continue searching parts of the wreck that remain above water.

Divers were also investigating whether objects in the sea surrounding the wreck were human remains. Last week, Italian navy divers identified 16 objects in the water surrounding the half-sunken ship, but it was not clear whether they were bodies or other objects from the ship.

The civil protection agency said technical studies had shown that the deformation of the ship's hull had created safety concerns that made a continued search impossible. It did not go into detail about the hazards. The statement said the families of those still missing, and diplomatic representatives of their countries of origin, had been informed of the decision to interrupt the search.

Search operations have been suspended briefly several times before, when the ship shifted slightly on its rocky resting place, only to be resumed afterward. This time, the agency said, safety conditions for the underwater search had been "objectively" reduced, suggesting a more persistent problem.

The quest for bodies was only part of the emergency effort on the wreck, which was carrying half a million gallons of fuel when it deviated from its prescribed course and struck the submerged reef. Italian authorities are anxious to keep the fuel from spilling into waters that are regarded as a marine sanctuary.

Last weekend, rough wintry seas and strong winds forced salvage crews to suspend preparations to drain the fuel, a job expected to take four weeks, and officials said the conditions might not allow a resumption until Wednesday or later.

Even so, crews were able to keep searching inside the ship, and on Saturday retrieved the body of a young woman from the submerged part of the sixth deck; she was identified as a Peruvian crew member.

The Costa Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest, accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before its passengers were safe, although he has not been formally charged.

He has said that he took the ship on "touristic navigation," bringing it close to Giglio for sightseeing purposes, and that the rock that opened a gash in its hull was not marked on nautical charts. He said the cruise company suggested that he go close to shore, but the company has denied doing so.