Day after day, night after night, a team of brave rescue divers carry on with their mission, letting up only when bad weather prevents their search. Leonardo Cherici, 34, from Civitavecchia, has been there since the beginning. He recalled: “It was complete chaos. The thing I remember seeing first is just a mountain of chairs, all piled on to one side in the restaurant.
“You could barely see anything and our vision was being blocked constantly by the debris we were swimming through.
Cherici was the first diver to find two victims, two elderly men. He said: “They were next to each other by a muster station. That’s what hit me. They were so close to the lifeboats, so close to being saved. “We had to cut the life jackets off. If we don’t, it’s like trying to carry a balloon underwater. You try not to get emotional but it’s very difficult.
There is also, now, the added health risk of rotting bodies contaminating the waters. Visibility is just 50cm, at worst 10cm, with even the powerful torches they carry having trouble illuminating the bowels of the ship. Divers wear thermal long johns and T-shirts under their 5mm-thick anti-tear suits. Most dives take 40 minutes. The men have two torches on their helmets to help them pick their way through the corridors, restaurants, function rooms and 1,500 cabins.
Before they dive they are given a briefing and they take a laminated diagram of the target area they are to search.Their way inside the ship is via a series of holes blown into the submerged decks of the liner.
“The stench is unbearable for the divers. You have to remember this ship had just set sail on a week’s cruise with food for more than 4,000 and it is all now going off in the water.
“One of the guys told me some water went through his mask and the stench was unbearable. That’s why after the last few dives we had to disinfect their suits and them with sprays to make sure they are not exposing themselves to any bacteriological risks.
Looking at the Concordia as it lies on its side off Isola Del Giglio, Cherici said: “That ship carried 4,000 people. It was a floating village. It had just set sail for a week with food and provisions for that time and we were swimming through most of it. “I was swimming through carpets, curtains and tablecloths. One thing I remember is half-drunk wine bottles would come shooting towards us.
“They had been trapped under debris then became dislodged and because of the air inside them they would shoot to the surface like missiles and we had to dodge them.”
The divers are driven on by their determination not to leave anyone behind and the knowledge that grieving relatives are desperate to be reunited with loved ones.
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