Italian professor in hot water for inviting Costa Concordia captain to lecture

A Rome university professor is facing a disciplinary hearing after inviting the captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner to lecture students on emergency procedures. The dean of Rome’s Sapienza University, Luigi Frati, voiced anger Wednesday at the professor’s decision to invite Capt. Francesco Schettino to give a seminar, calling it an “inappropriate and unworthy choice.” Frati said he was turning the matter over to an ethics committee. The university dismissed the “pathetic excuses” offered by the professor, Vincenzo Mastronardi, when confronted by the dean. Schettino is being tried for manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning ship over the January 2012 capsize of the Concordia, in which 32 people died.

[The seminar was] a technical intervention on the basis of my knowledge and professionalism acquired over many years of service.

Francesco Schettino, former Costa Concordia captain, through his lawyer

The Concordia was towed from its Tuscan graveyard last month to Genoa’s port where it will be turned into scrap. During a search of the ship Wednesday, authorities found some bone fragments that they said could belong to the one person still unaccounted for from the tragedy: Indian waiter Russel Rebello. They said the bones could also belong to an Italian passenger whose partial, mutilated remains were found some months ago.

Europe