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Mystery woman reportedly seen with captain on bridge of doomed cruise ship

GIGLIO, Italy – A young Moldovan woman was invited onto the bridge of the ill-fated Italian cruise ship that hit a reef and capsized and Italian authorities are now interesting in questioning her regarding that happened the night of the crash.

Speculation swirled around the mysterious blond woman – variously described as a ballerina, a ship employee and an undocumented passenger – reportedly seen with the captain of the Costa Concordia shortly before the 17-deck vessel became impaled Friday on a rock off the Italian coast and pitched on its side.

Domnica Cemortan, 25, who has dual Moldovan and Romanian citizenship, staunchly defended the actions of 52-year-old Capt. Francesco Schettino, saying he saved lives.

London’s Daily Telegraph reported today that she was the guest of one of the ship’s officers and may be the woman that passengers saw drinking and chatting with Schettino a few hours before the Costa Concordia ran aground.

Italian authorities, who are investigating the accident and the captain’s conduct, want to interview Cemortan, who according to her Facebook page was born in Chisinau, Moldova, and lives in Romania.

The woman’s name was missing from the list of passengers and crew, but Costa Crociere, owners of the boat, said it could provide her ticket number.

Cemortan had worked for Costa Cruises, but was thought to be taking a “holiday” on the ill-fated ship. London’s Daily Mail said she was a passenger representative.

Italian media speculated Cemortan might have been a special guest of the captain, who is now under house arrest near Naples pending possible charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship.

Cemortan said she was dining with friends at the time of the disaster and denied Schettino was also having drinks on deck.

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported investigators were focusing on a series of telephone calls made from the liner after it hit rocks last Friday night off the island of Giglio and before an evacuation was ordered almost an hour later.

Corriere della Sera said the investigators were trying to determine if company bosses were trying to avoid the “economic consequences” of an evacuation, which would entail an automatic compensation payment of $38.8 million for the 3,000 passengers aboard.

Meanwhile, divers and salvage teams, who resumed their search of the ship after it was suspended Wednesday when the vessel slipped and moved, raced against time to recover bodies and siphon fuel amid forecasts of worsening weather, Sky News reported.

“I’m not calm at all,” Environment Minister Corrado Clini said Thursday, according to ANSA news service.

“Our time is very limited. We are running the risk of the ship moving, being damaged or the fuel tanks breaking.”

The boat, which had just begun its Mediterranean cruise, carried some 230,000 tons of fuel that threatened to leak into the waters off Giglio, a marine sanctuary and popular holiday spot.

At least 11 are known dead in the disaster, with more than 20 others still missing.

Clini said operations to empty the ship’s fuel reserves would begin only once all the missing were accounted for, ANSA said.

Costa Crociere confirmed it would give refunds to all passengers who were onboard and cover any expenses they incurred in the aftermath of the disaster.

But the company angered many survivors when one of its executives accused passengers of “sensationalism” in their accounts of the disaster.

“I have read, seen and heard so much nonsense from these survivors, who tended as usual to choose sensationalism rather than information,” Costa Crociere assistant director Monica Bova wrote in a letter posted on the Il Secolo website.

With AFP and Newscore