Sardinian sailor who died with his colleagues in the Adriatic, the witness: "We couldn't do anything"

The investigations of the Bari Public Prosecutor's Office are proceeding on the tragic shipwreck that took place in the Adriatic Sea , which cost the lives of five sailors, including Andrea Loi , 58 , a native of Tortolì but a long-time resident in Puglia, after having also worked in Ancona.

The pontoon AD3 which was towed by the tugboat Franco P. sunk Wednesday evening 50 miles from the Bari coast was impounded .

The commander of the tugboat , the 63-year-old from Catania Giuseppe Petralia , the sole survivor of the sinking and currently hospitalized in Bari, and the shipowner Antonio Santini , 78-year-old Roman, legal representative of the Ilma company of Ancona, owner of the tugboat and pontoon.

In the investigation dossier, coordinated by the prosecutor Luisiana Di Vittorio , the crimes of concurrence in shipwreck and multiple manslaughter are hypothesized. The seizure decree also concerns the sunken tug, the wreck of which, however, is located at a depth of about a thousand meters.

THE WITNESS - " We broke our hearts, but we could not save them . Everything happened suddenly, in 20-25 minutes. We had been sailing for four days and there was not the slightest problem". This is the story of the tragedy made by Onorio Olivi , the technician of the AD3 pontoon among the witnesses of the sinking of the tug. The man was heard today in the Port Authority of Bari.

"We saw the boat taking on water and there was nothing to do , not even time to help them - he explains -, because the sea conditions were what they were".

Olivi clarifies that with the sinking " the weather conditions have nothing to do with it, probably there was a technical problem . We did everything we could. We also put a rubber boat in the water, risking the lives of those who went on the boat. , because our brothers were there, but unfortunately we were unable to do anything. The sense of helplessness destroys us all because you are there and you cannot do anything ".

On his missing companions, Olivi explains, moved: “ I felt them as more than brothers because the life of the sea, whoever does it knows, 24 hours a day we face everything together . The moment is terrible. We have lived together, we have worked together for twenty years, people who have worked a lifetime with us. Now - he continues - let's think of the pain of families, of those who are no longer there, fathers of families, grandparents, parents, one had to marry their daughter, let's think of wives and children who now need comfort and then we will think about the faults later. ".

(Unioneonline / lf)