It was an intense afternoon for the Coast Guard who, around 1.30 pm, about 10 miles south/east of the Island of Elba, provided assistance to the crew of a motorized pleasure boat of about 22 meters, which was in trouble due to of a sudden fire that broke out during navigation. As we anticipated in another article.
On board the 22 meter boat headed towards our island were Stefania Craxi, daughter of Bettino Craxi and parliamentarian of Forza Italia, 64 years old, and her husband Marco Bassetti, 66 years old, Milanese stylist and designer, former president and administrator of Endemol now at the helm of Banijay, the television production house
This is what happened: The Portoferraio Operations Room was contacted around 12.00, when the unit commander detected the presence of a thick blanket of smoke coming from the engines.
Within a short time the flames engulfed a large part of the vessel, forcing the captain and the other two people on board to abandon the vessel, which sank within a few hours.
The intervention of the SAR CP 892 patrol boat from Portoferraio made it possible to rescue the three occupants of the unit, who were subsequently disembarked in the port of Marina di Campo for any checks by health workers.
Various vehicles were diverted to the area affected by the accident, under the coordination of the Maritime Directorate of Livorno, including a Navy ship and a helicopter from the Sarzana Coast Guard air base, the latter of which intervened following the sinking to monitor from an environmental point of view the area affected by the sinking.
Even though at the moment there are no obvious dangers of marine pollution, the Port Authority of Portoferraio has taken steps, pursuant to the law for the defense of the sea (L. 979/1982), to notify the shipowner of the unit of formal warning to adopt every necessary measure to prevent potential forms of pollution, will continue to monitor the area affected by the event, as well as continue the administrative investigation initiated for the maritime accident with the aim of ascertaining the causes and possible responsibilities of the accident.
