Costa Concordia Hearings Begin

A series of pretrial hearings into the Costa Concordia cruise-liner disaster began Monday in Italy. Among the hundreds of people in attendance was the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, whose personal conduct during and after the disaster has been at the center of the probe into what went wrong and when. “We came to see Schettino,” said one German passenger who attended the hearings. “I don’t know if the Italian justice system can be trusted, but I hope so.” The Costa Concordia, with 4,229 passengers on board, struck a reef in January and tipped completely on its side.