The Moby Prince tragedy — new inquiry called
A new commission has been set up to re-examine Italy’s deadliest maritime incident.
Italian authorities have re-opened the investigation into the fatal accident that killed 140 passengers and crew aboard the 6,700-gt ropax, Moby Prince.
On 10th April 1991 the Navarma-owned Moby Prince collided with Eni SpA’s 187,000-dwt tanker Agip Abruzzo in the Gulf of Livorno. Only one person out of the 141 passengers and crew aboard survived the ensuing inferno.
Following the disaster, the Leghorn public prosecutor began a criminal investigation into the disaster, but no convictions were made. The exact cause of the collision was never established and numerous call have been made over the years to re-open the investigation.
Andrea Romano, the Democratic Party deputy leader told Italian media that the initial inquiry only shone a partial light on the accident:
“It was a partial light even if there were final judgments on that disaster. Those sentences represent a judicial truth that today we know to be far from the true truth about those facts,” Romano said.
“And this is why it was urgent and necessary to approve this measure, which provides for the establishment of a second commission of inquiry that sheds a full, definitive light on the Moby Prince massacre.”
