The investigation phase has been closed; Norman Atlantic approaches the criminal trial

A big step towards the criminal trial that will bring finally light and justice to the Norman Atlantic marittime disaster; great satisfaction from our legal team, not only because we are approaching the trial, but also because the Public Prosecutor has clearly listened to the complaints of our clients, adding to the accused list all the crew members who did not provide the necessary assistance to passengers. There was no loading plan for the heavy trucks, and the fire started to develop from one of the refrigerated trucks, because there were not enough power outlets and the truck drivers kept their engines running to cool the goods. A hypothesis that had already made its way in the days following the fire, as a malpractice prohibited by navigation regulations. And there were other and numerous negligence, both in the risk assessment and during the evacuation, with extreme disorganization and several crew members who left the ship way before the passengers were safe. Now the Bari prosecutor, after 3 years close investigations, adding all the crew members to the accused, mainly for our multiple reports of severe complaints from our clients for abandonment of the ship; 30 people and two companies, Visemar and Anek Lines, now face the criminale trial for the shipwreck of the Norman Atlantic ferry, which took place off the Albanian coast on the night of December 28 2014 after a fire broke out on board that cost the lives of 31 people, including some Syrian migrants, even minors, and the wounding of others 64.

All the subjects under investigation are liable for involuntary cooperation in shipwreck, culpable homicide and multiple culpable injuries. Numerous violations on security and the navigation code are also contested. To the original 18 people already in the file of the p.p’s office of Bari, Ettore Cardinali and Federico Perrone Capano, they added others 12: they are the legal representative of Visemar, society owner of the ferry, Carlo Visentini, the two legal representatives of the Greek Anek Lines, charterer of the Norman Atlantic, in addition to the commander Argilio Giacomazzi and 26 crew members. 6 of them also contend that they had left the ship avoiding to help passengers way before they were safe. A series of negligences emerged in the expert’s report of the Port Authority of Bari, above all on the assessment of the risks and on the organization of the operations of evacuation of the ship, which would have caused the shipwreck and the death of some passengers. About the causes of the shipwreck we already ran trough a probationary incident phase that lasted about two years with numerous accesses aboard the wreck, moored since February 2015 in the port of Bari, and still subjected to seizure.

The experts report about a ineffective firefighting system and unprepared crew. The fire supposedly started from a refrigerated truck running a diesel engine during navigation. Furthermore, according to the accusatory hypothesis, a plan to load the 128 TIR on board (of which about 60 refrigerators) was missing, arranged on the bridges in an approximate manner, without respecting the distance between the vehicles and the availability of elettric power, forcing hauliers to keep the engines running. And both the captain and carrier companies were full aware of this malpractice. We are also waiting to call accusation about the reason why the captain and the shipping companies have decided to prevent the intervention of the Albanian tugs to wait the arrival from Bari of the rescue, forcing the passengers to fear for their life two day on a ship adrift in flames and in the stormy sea.

In the next few weeks we will update all our clients with more detail on the following steps, about the civil case running in Bari, relations between civil and criminal proceedings, and strategies of our team in order to bring justice and compensation to all.

Norman Atlantic: recovered by the experts the audio from black box – RECUPERATO DAI PERITI L’AUDIO DALLA SCATOLA NERA

After a long summer stop, some good news coming from the criminal investigations in course in Bari to ascertain the cause of the fire of the Norman Atlantic and identifying any possible responsible for what happened that tragic night.

Thanks to the valuable work of the Judge’s experts on the black box that was found in the dashboard very damaged by the fire,  rumors confirms that it was finally possible to retrieve the audio files that firtly appeared not recorded or lost!

Quite clear the importance of being able to listen to the voices of the Captain and of the crew to reconstruct what happened on the main bridge in the hectic period during the emergency’s phase. We are confident that these data – miracolously recovered – will help to let emerge the truth of what really happened, allowing justice to identify and punish all the possible responsibles, also at a corporate level. We think also that the extraction of the black box data will be useful to understand or at least to explain not only the origin but also the spread of the fire, which also drew the Safety Room of the dashboard.

With this brilliant operation the experts really contributed to the investigations, which we belive it will now dramaticaly accelerate and will soon end with the committal for trial of all the responsibles. And it is not difficult to guess that the audio files will carry out sensational developments. Our goal is not only to assist the passengers of the Norman Atlantic but the most extraordinary and ambitious step that we aim is being able – at the end of the trial – to improve safety of navigation trying to economically punish shipping companies to induce them to equip themselves with modern and functional security systems, instead of saving money on safety measures and crews.

Soon we will update about other possible development on investigation phase, that has recently being extended for six more months, and the possible disembark of the vehicles still onborad of the Norman Atlantic ship, docked in Bari.

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Finalmente, dopo il lungo stop estivo, una svolta nelle indagini peritali in corso a Bari  per accertare le cause dell’incendio del Norman Atlantic e individuare i responsabili di quanto accaduto quella tragica notte. Grazie al prezioso lavoro dei periti sulla scatola nera recuperata della plancia di comando  con l’involucro esterno fuso, é stato miracolosamente possibile recuperare i file audio che parevano in una prima fase non registrati o perduti!

Di tutta evidenza l’importanza di poter ascoltare le voci del Comandante  e dell’equipaggio per ricostruire quanto accaduto in plancia nelle concitate fasi dell’emergenza. Siamo certi che questi dati finalmente ed insperabilmente recuperati faranno emergere la verità, consentendo alla giustizia di individuare e punire tutti responsabili anche eventualmente a livello societario.

Pensiamo, inoltre, che l’estrazione dei dati della scatola nera sarà utile anche per capire o meglio per spiegare non solo l’origine  ma anche la diffusione dell’incendio, che ha attinto anche la Safety Room della plancia di comando. Con questa brillante operazione i periti hanno senza dubbio dato un grosso impulso all’attività investigativa, che ci auguriamo quanto prima possa chiudersi con il rinvio a giudizio di tutti i responsabili. E non è difficile ipotizzare che grazie ai file audio ci saranno a breve svolte clamorose. Il nostro obiettivo è tutelare le persone che assistiamo che erano a bordo del Norman Atlantic ma il risultato più straordinario e ambizioso che ci prefiggiamo è quello di riuscire – attraverso il processo – a migliorare il sistema della sicurezza della navigazione cercando di fare punire economicamente le compagnie di navigazione per indurle a dotarsi di sistemi di sicurezza moderni e funzionali invece che risparmiare su mezzi ed equipaggi .

Presto contiamo di fornire nuovi aggiornamenti sulla fase delle indagini, che è stata recentemente prorogata di sei mesi, e sul possibile sbarco dei veicoli ancora a bordo della nave Norman Atlantic, ormeggiata nel porto di Bari.