The authorities are examining the possibility of destruction of crucial evidence on the Italian vessel Enrica Lexie by its captain Umberto Vitelli, and the emails sent out from the ship immediately after it was cornered by the Navy and the Coast Guard.
Top police officials said that not only could the failure to switch on the voice data recorder, as reported by this newspaper on February 20, be seen as intentional destruction of evidence, the emails sent by him to the company immediately after the vessel was cornered by the naval authorities were now under scrutiny.
“Our priority is to trace the location of the ship at the time of the firing. The voice data recorder and other data are being analysed. However, we are also looking at the emails sent out by the captain after the incident and also the ones he sent just before the ship was cornered by our people,” said a top police official connected with the probe. He added that around the time of the shooting and immediately after that, the captain was in front of the computer and is believed to be involved in navigation and also sending out emails to the company.
The data of the voice data recorder, similar to an aircraft’s black box, is crucial to the investigation.