A Costa Cruises executive, and a woman with an obviously cold heart, has brandished her colleagues the “true heroes” of the Costa Concordia disaster. She also accused the passengers of “sensationalism” in a letter in which she discussed the tragedy that saw the Costa Concordia cruise ship capsize off the coast of Italy.

Monica Bova, an assistant director for Costa Cruises, has made headlines for writing a letter to an Italian website entitled: “The real heroes are my colleagues”.

The death toll from the accident has climbed to 11 people, while more than 20 are still missing after the 290m-long cruise liner, the Costa Concordia, ran aground near the island of Giglio off the Tuscan coast.

Bova wrote that to hear passengers who were safe and sound on the docks say “no-one saved us” was outrageous.

She went on to say:

I have read, seen and heard so much nonsense from these survivors, who tended as usual to choose sensationalism rather than information.

Her comments have been met with understandably angry reactions, and one reader wrote:

This letter is really useless, ridiculous and self-centred.

Others went on to say that it actually wasn’t her place to make such comments, as she wasn’t even there and therefore couldn’t truly say what had gone on aboard the ship during the crucial first hours after the accident occurred.

Passengers have described the evacuation process as disordered and chaotic, while experts have criticised the crew for not getting people to lifeboats quickly enough.

Those views are consistent with those of passengers describing the evacuation process as one of initial confusion, and that the seriousness of the accident was also initially underestimated.

The ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, was under house arrest as he faces investigation on suspicion of manslaughter and abandoning the cruise liner while passengers were still aboard the vessel.

[Source: Sky]