Gianni Scerni, President of RINA, Resigns – Was Critical of Costa Management in Newspaper Interview

Posted on by January 20, 2012

Shortly after Costa Crociere chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi blamed the grounding of the Costa Concordia on an ”inexplicable” error by the captain, Gianni Scerni, the president of RINA, sat down for an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Secolo XIX.  RINA, Registro Italiano Navale, is the Italian classification society that issued the certificate of seaworthiness and the Safety Management System (SMS) certification for the Costa Concordia.  The resulting article, titled Ma l’armatore non poteva non sapere (But the owner could not find out) is critical of Costa management and questions the claim that Costa was unaware of the practice of its ships presenting a “salute” or “bow” in the form of a close passage by island of Giglio.   Within hours of its publication, Gianni Scerni announced his resignation as the president of RINA.   He disputed the accuracy of some of the comments in the interview but decided to resign from RINA nevertheless.

Comments

Gianni Scerni, President of RINA, Resigns – Was Critical of Costa Management in Newspaper Interview — 2 Comments

  1. Obviously Costa management knew of these salutes and turned a blind eye to them if not condoning or even encouraging these practices. There’s much more to this story than just blaming everything on the captain. I find incredible the dialogue between the captain and the coastguard especially the threats made during a period when the only focus should have been saving lives. It is also highly unprofessional for Costa management to so quickly distance themselves from the captain before a full investigation has been carried out.

    I’d be interested to see some underwater footage at the location where the colision occurred. It would appear that the rock formation struck by the Concordia may have been an isolated outcrop that has never been identified on charts. Perhaps the captain should not be hung just yet.

  2. I agree that it is unfortunate that the captain has been the focus of all the criticism. The captain deserves much of the criticism that he has received, but focusing only on him obscures larger issues of safety and mismanagement.