Concordia, author of the De Falco-Schettino call scoop: “I’ll tell you about that ‘Go on board, fuck'”

“The phone call between De Falco and Schettino? Yes, without hesitation today I would spread it again, because that dialogue has become, in some respects, one of the symbols of that tragedy”. Simone Innocenti, an expert in crime and judicial news for the “Corriere Fiorentino”, is the author of the scoop that allowed the ‘turning point’ in the ‘narrative’ of the Costa Concordia shipwreck in front of the island of Giglio. Ten years later, interviewed by Adnkronos, he confesses that he would do exactly what he did then: on January 16, 2012 he published the audio file of the dramatic conversation between Captain Gregorio De Falco of the Port Authority of Livorno and the commander on the website of his newspaper. of the sinking ship, Francesco Schettino, with that categorical imperative “Go aboard, fuck” that went around the world and which is still one of the most clicked on YouTube by millions of users. Ten years later the mystery still remains of how Simone Innocenti managed to get that audio, released the same day in which Schettino appeared before the magistrates of the Grosseto Public Prosecutor’s Office for the guarantee question following his arrest. “With all frankness and sincerity it is a mystery to me too: it was a completely unexpected ‘gift'”, explains the journalist in the interview with Adnkronos. “In ten years no one has ever understood how that file got into my hands. And I never even knew who wanted to give me that ‘gift'”. That audio that would have ‘condemned Schettino without trial’, according to the version of the defense lawyers of the commander of the Concordia, was found in the car of Simone Innocenti, parked in a hotel in Porto Santo Stefano (Grosseto), near the port from where ferries leave for the island of Giglio. “It is the truth – the journalist reiterates to Adnkronos – the same one that I told the public prosecutors of Grosseto, in the presence of the then chief prosecutor Francesco Verusio, when I was heard during the proceedings that had been opened by the Public Prosecutor for the dissemination of the Since I had and have a bad habit of smoking even in the car, I almost always leave the window open; it also happened that evening ten years ago when I returned to the hotel. inside the audio file with the dialogue between De Falco and Schettino “. Of course, Simone Innocenti admits, “those following listening to the phone call were difficult and complex situations: I was shocked, speechless, then I didn’t even know who De Falco was … I spent more than an hour in terror, I didn’t I immediately realized how explosive that stuff was … When I framed it all, I decided it was important to make that conversation known in the knowledge that pandemonium would break out and that there would also be legal consequences. due feedback and using the necessary precautions “. So the phone call from “Go on board, fuck” went from site to site, broadcast on radio and television stations, picked up by the newspapers, traveled around the world in a few hours, relaunched by the BBC to CNN. Did the phone call that made the hero De Falco emerge in public opinion and end up in the dust Schettino, changed the life of Simone Innocenti? “No, I am the same journalist as before – replies the person concerned – and I continue to deal with the news with the same passion that my work reserves for me”. In addition to the professional gratifications, Innocenti admits, however, that the spread of that phone call – net of the headaches it caused him – has reserved some personal satisfactions of no small importance. Starting with the compliments of his mother Loretta. “That evening the Tuscan regional television news of Rai 3 – the journalist also tells Adnkronos – produced a report on the audio and colleagues gave my name and surname as the author of the scoop. My mother who did not surf the internet but always listened the TGR immediately called me to compliment me: ‘Simone bravo’. For me it was the most beautiful medal. How nice it was from then on to hear so many journalists, Italians and foreigners, the tips of the investigative news, show friendship and esteem for me: for them I was no longer just a ‘colleague’ I had become ‘Simone’ “. (by Paolo Martini)