Pics: Rons Bantwal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai
New Delhi/Mumbai, Jan 19 (IANS): Twenty-three Indian survivors of the sunken Italian cruise ship 'Costa Concordia' arrived in Mumbai Thursday.
While two members arrived in the afternoon, 21 others arrived in the evening via Emirates from Rome through Dubai.
Among those who landed at Mumbai airport were Patrick Pinto, Sapna Singh, Rahul Raghav, Bharat Paithankar and Moben.
Family members of all those who arrived were waiting for them at the airport and gave them a tearful welcome. Mothers hugged their sons, as they cried out in sheer relief that they are back home safe.
Survivors, however, blamed the ship captain for not facilitating rescue operations. Most complained that he was not to be found when he was needed the most during the rescue operations.
"The captain ran away like a coward and was not seen around during the rescue operations. I, along with other crew members helped save most of the passengers of the ship and could only board the second last life boat," said Bharat Paithankar, who was the bartender on the ship.
The first batch of 15 Indians had earlier landed at Delhi. Nine survivors each reached Chennai and Hyderabad.
Around 75 Indians of the 200 rescued from the 'Costa Concordia' returned home Thursday. There were 203 indians on board - 202 of whom were crew members and one was a passenger.
The remaining survivors are expected Friday, except for one sailor who has decided to stay back in Italy. Only one Indian, the 33-year-old Robello Russel Terence, is missing. The government has stepped up efforts to trace him.
The external affairs ministry has set up help desks at the airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad to help families and relatives of those rescued from the ill-fated ship.
The Italian luxury liner was carrying more than 4,200 people when it ran aground on a reef off Giglio island in western Italy. More than 60 people were injured in the incident and six killed.
The survivors were relieved to return home and had stories to tell about their ordeal and how lucky they were to be alive and back with their loved ones.
Mukesh Kumar, a 26-year-old resident of Hiruwa village of Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu, said he was thankful to god for lucky escape.
"We are lucky to have survived as it was captain's fault that despite knowing the situation he had ordered for evacuation late when the situation went out of control," he said. "I am thankful to god that we are safe and happy to be back with our family," he added.
"We are happy that we are back in our country. But we will go back to join the company as they were very helpful," said 28-year-old Kandari Surjan Singh Singh.
The silver lining to the tragedy of the shipwreck was the compensation package the cruise company agreed to provide to the survivors.
According to the Indian embassy's first secretary Vishwesh Negi, tickets were arranged for most of the crew members to fly home.
"A total of 200 Indians are leaving Italy in the coming two days (Thursday and Friday). Russel Rebello is still missing and his friend Nikhil Mulati has expressed his desire to stay with his wife Teresa in Naples, Italy," Negi said.
"The cruise company has managed to provide 194 air tickets from Italy to Dubai and then connecting flights to India. The remaining six Indians will leave once they get their air tickets," he added.