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Captain arrested amid growing anger after Italian cruise ship runs aground

The Italian captain of the ship that sank off the coast of Tuscany was detained by prosecutors as efforts continued to search for the missing.

Three people were confirmed to have died and 41 were still unaccounted for after the 114,000-tonne Costa Concordia smashed into rocks near the island of Giglio.

Authorities said that Francesco Schettino , 52, who has worked for the owners of the cruise liner for 11 years, was being investigated for manslaughter and abandoning his ship. Prosecutor Francesco Velusio was quoted as saying that the vessel "was mistakenly close" to the island on a route ordered by Schettino through well-mapped sea lanes.

There was speculation that a power failure on board the ship could have led to a loss of navigational control, sending it smashing into the rocks. Experts said that passengers reported a power blackout and a large blast, which may have indicated an explosion in the engine room.

The ship came to rest half submerged on its side, yards from Giglio late on Friday. There was anger among the thousands of passengers who had swum or been ferried and flown to safety over what they described as a botched evacuation by crew members who panicked. Italian police confirmed that two French tourists and a Peruvian crew member had died in the accident. About 30 people were reported to have been injured, with three remaining critical.

Costa Crociere, the cruise operator, said that all 25 British passengers and 12 British crew on board were accounted for, but a British embassy official was unable to confirm the figure.

Survivors described panic, confusion and fear as the ship began to list heavily following what sounded like a loud explosion. "Have you seen Titanic? That's exactly what it was like for us," said Valerie Ananias, 31, a schoolteacher from Los Angeles travelling with her sister and parents.

Kirsty Cook, one of eight British dancers working on the ship, said that she was "lucky to be alive" after using a rope ladder to climb down to a rescue boat. Another dancer, Rosie Metcalf, 22, from Dorset, had to cling to a fire hose before being winched to safety by a helicopter crew.

The Costa Concordia, which was built in Italy and launched in 2006, set off from Civitavecchia on Friday for a Mediterranean cruise, carrying 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew. As the ship slid between Giglio and the coast, passengers sitting down for their first dinner on board felt a shudder before the lights went out.

Despite an announcement that the ship had suffered no more than an electrical failure, diners became suspicious as their drinks began to tilt on the tables in front of them. Schettino said that the ship had struck rocks "which were not indicated on maps". He denied allegations that he was sailing too close to the coast.

"We were 300 metres from the rocks and that outcrop should not have been there," he said. As dawn broke yesterday, a huge chunk of torn-off rock could be seen protruding from a 50-metre long gash in the ship's hull below the waterline.

Schettino tried to steer the ship towards the coast to make evacuation easier, but as water poured into the lower decks the vessel began to list dangerously and it was soon too late to lower the lifeboats.

Passengers complained that they had urged crew members to let them on to the lifeboats as the ship manoeuvred but were told the captain had not yet given permission. A group of Croatian tourists said that, due to the listing of the ship, one lifeboat that had been eventually loaded with passengers crashed back into the hull.

"There was panic immediately," said Francesca Sinatra, a passenger from Rome. "People were shouting and climbing on each other." The lifeboat that she was in collided a number of times with the listing hull as it was lowered due to the angle, she added.

Mara Parmegiani Alfonsi, an Italian journalist who was on board, said that the crew did not appear to have been trained for the emergency.

Rescue ships arrived as the vessel tipped closer to the water, sending furniture and crockery crashing throughout the ship. Helicopters were dispatched by the coastguard, navy and air force to hoist people to safety and light up the sea with searchlights as passengers – "a few hundred", according to one rescuer – plunged into the water to swim to the shore.

Costa Crociere said: "Emergency procedures have been promptly activated, our crew members on board are professionally trained and they took all the necessary actions to assist our guests and help them to evacuate the ship."

But the sailors' union Nautilus International said that, 100 years on from the sinking of the Titanic, "many ships are now effectively small towns at sea, and the sheer number of people on board raises serious questions about evacuation".

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Packed Italian court as captain in Concordia disaster hears evidence

GROSSETO, Italy -- The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that crashed into an Italian reef appeared in court Monday to hear the evidence against him, while hundreds of passengers who survived the deadly shipwreck and the families of those who died in it showed up just "to look him in the eye."

The case of Francesco Schettino, 51, was of such enormous interest that a theater had to be turned into a courtroom in the Tuscan city of Grosseto to accommodate all those who had a legitimate claim to be at the closed-door hearing over the disaster.

As dozens of experts, lawyers and prosecutors packed the building, all eyes were on Schettino, who returned to Tuscany for the first time since his arrest to, in his own words, “Face my accusers.”

In the next few days, Schettino, the eight other people accused, and the many survivors and families of victims, will learn if he will face charges over the deaths of 32 people after his ship run aground off Giglio island on Jan. 13.

Schettino is accused of manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning ship while passengers and crew were still aboard. He denies the accusations and has not been charged. Any trial is unlikely to begin before next year. 

“The sooner we can resolve it, the sooner the victims can get on with their lives, they can put this behind them. ... We are anxious to do that, but not so anxious to compromise on our will to change the industry for better standards,” John Arthur Eaves, Jr., an Alabama-based lawyer representing several American survivors of the disaster, told NBC News.

Monday’s hearing was the first and most important in a preliminary trial, aimed at establishing who should be indicted over the disaster.

Over the next few days experts, who were appointed at an earlier hearing in March, will present their analysis of the data retrieved from the black box, audio recordings and other on-board equipment.

The hearing is off limits to the media, and the only way to learn what is happening inside is through lawyers and witnesses who emerge from the theater during breaks.

Dramatic opening Schettino himself has become a lightning rod for international disdain for having left the ship before everyone was evacuated.

As befitting a star attraction, the captain arrived Monday at the makeshift courthouse through the back door in a car with darkened windows.

Costa Concordia captain admits he was 'distracted' by phone call

"Schettino looked like he just walked out of a fashion magazine. He was dressed in a black suit, black tie, and was very tanned. He didn't betray any emotion, and took many notes,” Eaves told NBC.

Even the weather added to the sense of drama.

A massive storm, nicknamed Cleopatra by Italian meteorologists, hit Grosseto a couple of hours after the hearing began, dumping rain on members of the media waiting outside.

A group of German survivors said Schettino was seen biting his nails, and another witness claimed to have seen him shaking hands with another survivor.

"We want to look him in the eye to see how he will react to the accusations," said survivor Michael Liessen, 50, who was attending with his wife. 

Schettino is one of nine people facing charges, although eyewitnesses, leaked audio and video recordings, a pre-trial report and even the liner’s owners, Costa Crociere (a subsidiary of Miami-based Carnival), appeared to put the blame squarely on him.

Wider fault? However, Eaves, the American lawyer, suggested the fault may lie wider.

"It was just said in court that musicians on board had more safety training than other crew members," Eaves told NBC.

Costa Concordia cruise ship captain says sacking unfair

“We are not going to save lives if we don’t change the standards in the whole industry, not only of this particular captain,” he added.

It is alleged Schettino was in command when he steered the gigantic ship too close to Giglio coastline, allegedly to perform a maritime salute to grant a favor to the ship’s head master, who was originally from the island.

The Concordia hit a reef, tearing a 160-ft. gash in her hull, taking in water and eventually running aground yards from the island’s port.

Video taken by passengers at the time showed scenes of chaos and confusion as the Costa Concordia started to list heavily.

In the intervening months, Schettino has sought to restore his reputation and set the record straight by giving his version of events.

His strategy has not met with widespread approval.

An angry member of an Italian consumer association told NBC News it would be raising a formal objection to Schettino’s presence in court.

“We are losing sight of the victims of this tragedy, but they could line the pockets of the shamed captain,” the member said.

Complete Europe coverage on NBCNews.com

Many questions Expert evidence will have to address many questions, among them:

Did Schettino make a personal and fatal mistake in taking the ship too close to the island, or should, as he claims, the blame be shared with other crew members?

Did Schettino voluntarily abandon the ship hours before all passengers were evacuated?

Did he delay the call to abandon the ship, further endangering passengers?

Did he really save hundreds of lives by steering the ship as close as possible to the coast, as he claims, guided by a “divine hand”?

A pre-trial report, leaked to Italian media weeks before the trial, places much of the blame on Schettino.

Costa Concordia disaster spawns shipwreck tourism for Italian island

The 270-page report, compiled by maritime experts appointed by the court, reveals that the captain abandoned the Costa Concordia hours before the last of the passengers had reached safety and was slow in issuing the order to abandon ship and alerting port authorities.

But the experts -- two admirals and two engineers -- also note that evacuation drills had not been undertaken by all passengers on the ship and not all crew members understood Italian, the operating language of the liner.

“You find a consistent pattern of a lack of discipline on crew training, on the design of the vessel, on the communication problems. They go back to standards that were set up by Carnival in the United States. This captain made a horrible mistake, but we are not going to save lives if we don’t change the standards in the whole industry, not only of this particular captain,” Eaves said.

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

An Indonesian helmsman, for instance, failed twice to understand orders, veering to the right instead of the left as he was told by Schettino, who joked he should pay closer attention or “we will go on the rocks,” only minutes before they dram aground.

A local newspaper said Monday the captain’s lawyers told the judge and prosecutors to “consider the position of the helmsman.”

Schettino, they seem to suggest, was not the only one to blame.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Costa Concordia Captain Francesco Schettino free from house arrest as Italy criminal probe continues

July 5, 2012 / 2:19 PM EDT / CBS/AP

(CBS/AP) ROME - An Italian judge lifted the house arrest order for the captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner on Thursday, but said he must remain in his hometown near Naples during the criminal investigation regarding the accident off the Tuscan coast that killed 32 people.

Captain Francesco Schettino is accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the liner while many passengers and crew were still aboard. Judge Valeria Montesarchio issued the written decision about his detention.

The ship's hull was severely gashed when the luxury liner rammed into a reef close to tiny Giglio island the night of Jan. 13.

Special Section: Italian Cruise Disaster Salvage company: Cruise ship will be gone by 2013 Costa Concordia to be salvaged in 1 piece

Costa Crociere SpA, the cruise company, contends that Schettino steered the vessel too close to shore. Prosecutors suspect Schettino maneuvered the ship perilously close to the tourist and fishing island in a publicity stunt.

Schettino has insisted that the reef wasn't on the ship's navigational charts, even though the rocky reef jutting from the sea is a landmark in the area. In a written memo to his lawyers, the captain defended his handling of the Concordia after the collision, the Italian news agency ANSA reported, citing a document that will be presented on an Italian TV show later Thursday night.

In the memo, the captain contended that he is no coward and credits what he says was his quick and lucid reaction for preventing what he said would have been greater loss of life, ANSA said.

Schettino has previously said he guided the vessel, which quickly took on water and began listing badly right after impact, toward the island's port to make evacuation easier. In the memo he reportedly claims to have quickly steered the ship away from further harm "out of pure instinct." The captain also said he wrestled with the decision "to evacuate or not" the ship before it was near the port and decided against an immediate evacuation.

After the ship listed so badly it was almost on one side, lifeboats on the gashed side could no longer be lowered. Some of the 4,200 passengers and crew members aboard jumped into the sea to swim to the island, while others were rescued by helicopter.

Some witnesses said they saw Schettino on shore while many people were aboard waiting for rescue, but he has claimed he was helping to direct the evacuation, which passengers have described as chaotic and late in getting started.

In a dramatic phone conversation released in January , a coast guard official was heard ordering the captain back on board to oversee the evacuation. But Schettino resisted the order, saying it was too dark and the ship was tipping dangerously.

Report: Captain claims he "tripped" into lifeboat Coast Guard to capt.: "Go back on board!"

"You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me?" Coast Guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco shouted as the Schettino sat safe in a life raft "It is an order. Don't make any more excuses. You have declared 'Abandon ship.' Now I am in charge."

"Listen Schettino," De Falco can be heard shouting in the audio tape. "There are people trapped on board. ... You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear?"

But Schettino resisted, saying the ship was listing and he was with his second-in-command in the lifeboat.

"I am here with the rescue boats. I am here. I am not going anywhere. I am here," he said. "I am here to coordinate the rescue."

"What are you coordinating there? Go on board! Coordinate the rescue from aboard the ship. Are you refusing?" came the response.

Schettino said he was not refusing, but he still did not return to the ship, saying at one point: "Do you realize it is dark and here we can't see anything?"

De Falco shouted back: "And so what? You want to go home, Schettino? It is dark and you want to go home? Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are. Now!"

The exchange also indicates that Schettino did not know anyone had died, with De Falco telling him at one point: "There are already bodies now, Schettino."

"How many bodies?" Schettino asks in a nervous tone.

"You are the one who has to tell me how many there are!" De Falco barks in response.

Schettino was finally heard on the tape agreeing to reboard. But the coast guard has said he never went back, and police arrested him on land several hours later.

Experts studying evidence are to report their findings to a court in two weeks.

In the memo, Schettino reportedly says he's "comforted" by the information recorded on the so-called black-box. Earlier this week, an Italian newspaper reported that that data recorder had not worked properly in the days before the collision and had been scheduled for repair on Jan. 14, when the Concordia was supposed to have docked at an Italian port farther north.

What role a malfunctioning data recorder might have played in tragedy is unclear.

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International, costa concordia captain found guilty of manslaughter.

Krishnadev Calamur

Francesco Schettino attends his trial in Grosseto, Italy, on Wednesday. The captain of the capsized Costa Concordia luxury liner has been convicted of multiple charges of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in jail. Gregorio Borgia/AP hide caption

Francesco Schettino attends his trial in Grosseto, Italy, on Wednesday. The captain of the capsized Costa Concordia luxury liner has been convicted of multiple charges of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in jail.

The captain of the Costa Concordia , the Italian cruise ship that hit rocks in 2012 and sank, has been convicted of multiple counts of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in the disaster that killed 32 people.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli tells our Newscast unit that prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence of 26 years for the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino.

Schettino, the sole defendant, was charged with multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. Prosecutors said that he took the ship too close to the shore off the Tuscan island of Giglio, and that he abandoned the vessel before all 4,229 passengers and crew were rescued.

3 Years After Wreck, Remains Of Final Costa Concordia Victim Are Found

Schettino denied abandoning ship , insisting he was thrown into the water when the vessel ran aground.

Sylvia adds: "Ship owners Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Corp., paid a $1.1 million fine; prosecutors accepted plea bargains from five other officials."

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• Costa Concordia

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Breaking news, at least 3 dead as cruise ship runs aground; captain arrested.

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PORTO SANTO STEFANO, Italy — The captain of a luxury cruise liner that ran aground and tipped over off Italy’s coast has been arrested and is being investigated for manslaughter and abandoning his ship, according to a report.

CNN, citing local prosecutors, is reporting that captain Francesco Schettino was taken into custody late Saturday in the crash that killed at least 3 and left roughly 40 passengers still missing.

Investigators reportedly want to know why the ship didn’t immediately call for help when it ran aground off the tiny island of Giglio near the coast of Tuscany late Friday, tearing a 160-foot gash in its hull and sending the massive vessel tilting on its side.

Survivors recounted a chaotic and terrifying evacuation through the ship’s upended hallways on Saturday, as divers searched the submerged part for any people still unaccounted for in the confusion.

VIDEO: ITALIAN CRUISE SHIP RUNS AGROUND, THREE DEAD

PHOTOS: CRUISE SHIP RUNS AGROUND IN ITALY

Three bodies were recovered from the sea after the Costa Concordia with 4,234 people aboard ran aground late Friday.

As authorities and port officials carefully matched names on the cruise ship’s list of passengers and crew with those of survivors getting off ferries or other boats on the mainland, the number of the unaccounted for steadily dropped to roughly 40.

Passengers described a scene reminiscent of “Titanic”, saying they escaped the ship by crawling along hallways, desperately trying to reach safety as the lights went out and plates and glasses crashed around them. Helicopters whisked some survivors to safety, others were rescued by private boats in the area, and witnesses said some people jumped from the ship into the dark, cold sea.

At darkness, the diving operations, involving fire department divers and coast guard divers, was suspended for the night, coast guard officials said. While only a small section of the submerged area was inspected, no signs of any survivors or victims were immediately found, said Capt. Emilio Del Santos, of the port captain’s office in Livorno. Helicopters and sea searches of the area were continuing.

The ship was lying virtually flat off Giglio’s coast, its starboard side submerged in the water and the huge gash showing clearly on its upturned hull.

Passengers complained the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate and once the emergency became clear, delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many of them to be released.

Terror: Passengers are seen in a rescue boat of the stranded cruise ship Costa Concordia. (EPA)

An evacuation drill was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, even though some passengers had already been on board for several days.

“It was so unorganized, our evacuation drill was scheduled for 5 p.m.,” said Melissa Goduti, 28, of Wallingford, Connecticut, who had set out on the cruise of the Mediterranean hours earlier. “We had joked ‘What if something had happened today?'”

Carnival Corp., which owns the cruise line that the ship belongs to, didn’t address the allegations in a statement it issued.

“Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the grounding of the Costa Concordia and especially the loved ones of those who lost their lives. They will remain in our thoughts and prayers in the wake of this tragic event.”

One of the victims was a Peruvian crew member, a diplomat from the South American country said, adding that a Peruvian woman was also missing. A French Foreign Ministry official confirmed that two of the bodies Frenchmen, both tourists.

Valerie Ananias, 31, a schoolteacher from Los Angeles who was traveling with her sister and parents on the first of two cruises around the Mediterranean, said the experience was like a disaster movie.

“Have you seen ‘Titanic?’ That’s exactly what it was,” said. They all bore dark red bruises on their knees from the desperate crawl they endured along nearly vertical hallways and stairwells, trying to reach rescue boats.

“We were crawling up a hallway, in the dark, with only the light from the life vest strobe flashing,” her mother, Georgia Ananias, 61 said. “We could hear plates and dishes crashing, people slamming against walls.”

She choked up as she recounted the moment when an Argentine couple handed her their 3-year-old daughter, unable to keep their balance as the ship lurched to the side and the family found themselves standing on a wall. “He said ‘take my baby,'” Mrs. Ananias said, covering her mouth with her hand as she teared up. “I grabbed the baby. But then I was being pushed down. I didn’t want the baby to fall down the stairs. I gave the baby back. I couldn’t hold her.

“I thought that was the end and I thought they should be with their baby,” she said.

“I wonder where they are,” daughter Valerie whispered.

The family said they were some of the last off the ship, forced to shimmy along a rope down the exposed side of the ship to a waiting rescue vessel below.

Survivor Christine Hammer, from Bonn, Germany, shivered near the harbor of Porto Santo Stefano, on the mainland, after stepping off a ferry from Giglio. She was wearing elegant dinner clothes — a gray cashmere sweater, a silk scarf — along with a large pair of hiking boots, which a kind islander gave her after she lost her shoes in the scramble to escape. Left behind in her cabin were her passport, credit cards and phone.

Hammer, 65, told The Associated Press she was eating her first course, an appetizer of cuttlefish, sauteed mushrooms and salad, on her first night aboard her first-ever cruise, which was a gift to her and her husband, Gert, from her local church where she volunteers.

Suddenly, “we heard a crash. Glasses and plates fell down and we went out of the dining room and we were told it wasn’t anything dangerous,” she said.

Several passengers concurred, saying crew members for a good 45 minutes told passengers there was a simple “technical problem” that had caused the lights to go off. Seasoned cruisers, however, knew better and went to get their life jackets from their cabins and report to their “muster stations,” the emergency stations each passenger is assigned to, they said.

Once there, though, crew members delayed lowering the lifeboats even thought the ship was listing badly, they said.

“We had to scream at the controllers to release the boats from the side,” said Mike van Dijk, a 54-year-old from Pretoria, South Africa. “We were standing in the corridors and they weren’t allowing us to get onto the boats. It was a scramble, an absolute scramble.”

Once at their life boat station, crew members directed passengers to go upstairs from the fourth floor deck; Alan Willits said he refused.

“I said ‘no this isn’t right.’ And I came out and I argued ‘When you get this boat stabilized, I’ll go up to the fifth floor then,” he said. Eventually, his lifeboat was lowered down.

But things didn’t improve for passengers once aboard the lifeboats or on land.

“No one counted us, neither in the life boats nor on land,” said Ophelie Gondelle, 28, a French military officer from Marseille. She said there had been no evacuation drill since she boarded in Marseille, France on Jan. 8.

A top Costa executive, Gianni Onorato, said Saturday the Concordia’s captain had the liner on its regular, weekly route when it struck a reef.

“The ship was doing what it does 52 times a year, going along the route between Civitavecchia and Savona,” a shaken-looking Onorato, who is Costa’s director general, told reporters on Giglio, a popular vacation isle about 18 miles off Italy’s central west coast. The captain is an 11-year Costa veteran, he said.

The captain was being held for questioning, which was continuing for hours, by Grosseto prosecutors, Italian state TV reported Saturday night. Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment

Patrick Pourbaix of Costa’s French arm, said 250 of the 462 French passengers are being brought Saturday night to Marseille. The other French passengers are expected to be brought back by special flights.

Coast guard officials in Porto Santo Stefano, where the survivors disembarked, said it would take hours at least to completely go through the cruise ship’s lists. As names of survivors were checked off, they were being communicated to consulates inquiring about the fate of their citizens aboard.

Some 30 people were reported injured, most of them suffering only bruises, but at least two people were reported to be in grave condition. Several passengers came off the ferries on stretchers, but it appeared more out of exhaustion and shock than serious injury.

The evacuees were taking refuge in schools, hotels, and a church on Giglio. Those evacuated by helicopter were taken to the port of Porto Santo Stefano on the nearby mainland.

Passengers sat dazed in a middle school opened for them, wrapped in wool or aluminum blankets, with some wearing their life preservers and their shoeless feet covered with aluminum foil. Civil protection crews served them warm tea and bread, but confusion reigned supreme as passengers tried desperately to find the right bus to begin their journey home.

Tanja Berto, from Ebenfurth, Austria, was shuttled from one line to another with her mother and 2-year-old son Bruno, trying to figure out how to get back to Savona, where they began their cruise a week ago.

“It’s his birthday today,” she said of her son, rolling her eyes as she held Bruno and tended to her mother, who had grown faint and was lying on the ground. “Happy birthday, Bruno.”

Survivors far outnumbered Giglio’s 1,500 residents, and island Mayor Sergio Ortelli issued an appeal for islanders — “anyone with a roof” — to open their homes to shelter the evacuees.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo said the first alarm went off about 10:30 p.m., about three hours after the Concordia had begun its voyage from the port of Civitavecchia, en route to its first port of call, Savona, in northwestern Italy.

The coast guard official, speaking from the port captain’s office in the Tuscan port of Livorno, said the vessel “hit an obstacle.”

The cruise liner’s captain, Paolillo said, then tried to steer his ship toward shallow waters, near Giglio’s small port, to make evacuation by lifeboat easier. But after the ship started listing badly, lifeboat evacuation was no longer feasible, Paolillo said.

Five helicopters, from the coast guard, navy and air force, took turns airlifting survivors and ferrying them to safely. A coast guard member was airlifted aboard the vessel to help people get aboard a small basket so they could be hoisted up to the helicopter, said Capt. Cosimo Nicastro, another Coast Guard official.

Costa Cruises said the Costa Concordia was sailing on a cruise across the Mediterranean Sea, starting from Civitavecchia with scheduled calls to Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.

The Concordia had a previous accident in Italian waters, ANSA reported. In 2008, when strong winds buffeted Palermo, the cruise ship banged against the Sicilian port’s dock, and sustained damage but no one was injured, ANSA said.

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10 years later, Costa Concordia survivors share their stories from doomed cruise ship

Ten years after the deadly Costa Concordia cruise line disaster in Italy, survivors still vividly remember scenes of chaos they say were like something straight out of the movie "Titanic."

NBC News correspondent Kelly Cobiella caught up with a group of survivors on TODAY Wednesday, a decade after they escaped a maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 32 people. The Italian cruise ship ran aground off the tiny Italian island of Giglio after striking an underground rock and capsizing.

"I think it’s the panic, the feeling of panic, is what’s carried through over 10 years," Ian Donoff, who was on the cruise with his wife Janice for their honeymoon, told Cobiella. "And it’s just as strong now."

More than 4,000 passengers and crew were on board when the ship crashed into rocks in the dark in the Mediterranean Sea, sending seawater rushing into the vessel as people scrambled for their lives.

The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, had been performing a sail-past salute of Giglio when he steered the ship too close to the island and hit the jagged reef, opening a 230-foot gash in the side of the cruise liner.

Passengers struggled to escape in the darkness, clambering to get to the life boats. Alaska resident Nate Lukes was with his wife, Cary, and their four daughters aboard the ship and remembers the chaos that ensued as the ship started to sink.

"There was really a melee there is the best way to describe it," he told Cobiella. "It's very similar to the movie 'Titanic.' People were jumping onto the top of the lifeboats and pushing down women and children to try to get to them."

The lifeboats wouldn't drop down because the ship was tilted on its side, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded on the side of the ship for hours in the cold. People were left to clamber down a rope ladder over a distance equivalent to 11 stories.

"Everybody was rushing for the lifeboats," Nate Lukes said. "I felt like (my daughters) were going to get trampled, and putting my arms around them and just holding them together and letting the sea of people go by us."

Schettino was convicted of multiple manslaughter as well as abandoning ship after leaving before all the passengers had reached safety. He is now serving a 16-year prison sentence .

It took nearly two years for the damaged ship to be raised from its side before it was towed away to be scrapped.

The calamity caused changes in the cruise industry like carrying more lifejackets and holding emergency drills before leaving port.

A decade after that harrowing night, the survivors are grateful to have made it out alive. None of the survivors who spoke with Cobiella have been on a cruise since that day.

"I said that if we survive this, then our marriage will have to survive forever," Ian Donoff said.

Scott Stump is a trending reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY (which you should subscribe to here! ) that brings the day's news, health tips, parenting stories, recipes and a daily delight right to your inbox. He has been a regular contributor for TODAY.com since 2011, producing features and news for pop culture, parents, politics, health, style, food and pretty much everything else. 

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Orlando Cepeda dies

Key dates in Costa Concordia shipwreck, trial and cleanup

FILE— Seagulls fly in front of the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

FILE— The grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia is seen through a window on the Isola del Giglio island, Italy, Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

FILE— Oil removal ships near the cruise ship Costa Concordia leaning on its side Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, after running aground near the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, last Friday night. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE— The Costa Concordia ship lies on its side on the Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

FILE— A sunbather gets her tan on a rock during the operations to refloat the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia on the tiny Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Once the ship has refloated it will be towed to Genoa’s port, about 200 nautical miles (320 kilometers), where it will be dismantled. 30 months ago it struck a reef and capsized, killing 32 people. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE— The wrecked hulk of the Costa Concordia cruise ship is towed along the Tyrrhenian Sea, 30 miles off the coast of Viareggio, Italy, Friday, July 25, 2014. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Fabio Muzzi)

FILE— A view of the previously submerged side of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, off the coast of the Tuscan Island of Giglio, Italy, Monday, Jan. 13, 2014. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE— A woman hangs her laundry as the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia is seen in the background, off the Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap.(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

FILE— In this photo taken on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, Francesco Schettino, right, the captain of the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, is taken into custody by Carabinieri in Porto Santo Stefano, Italy. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Giacomo Aprili)

Experts aboard a sea platform carry oil recovery equipment, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, as they return to the port of the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, where the cruise ship Costa Concordia, visible in background, ran aground on Ja. 13, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

FILE — The luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia lays on its starboard side after it ran aground off the coast of the Isola del Giglio island, Italy on Jan. 13, 2012. Italy is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Giuseppe Modesti)

FILE— Italian firefighters conduct search operations on the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia that ran aground the tiny Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

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By Associated Press (AP) — Italy on Thursday marks the 10th anniversary of the Costa Concordia cruise ship wreck off the Tuscan island of Giglio. Here are some key dates in the saga, including the trial of the captain and the remarkable engineering feat to right the liner from its side so it could be towed away for scrap.

Jan. 13, 2012: The Costa Concordia slams into a reef off Italy’s Giglio island after the captain, Francesco Schettino, ordered it taken off course and brought it close to shore in a stunt. It drifts without power until it comes to rest on its side offshore. After weeks of searches, rescue crews confirm 32 people died.

Jan. 15, 2012: Prosecutor Francesco Verusio confirms passenger allegations that Schettino abandoned the Concordia before all the passengers and crew had been evacuated.

Jan. 17, 2012: Schettino is placed under house arrest.

Jan. 17, 2012: Dramatic audio of the shipwreck is broadcast in which Coast Guard Cmdr. Gregorio De Falco uses colorful expletives to order Schettino to get back on board to coordinate the evacuation. “You’ve abandoned ship! I’m in charge now,” De Falco yells. “Go back and report to me how many passengers there are and what they need. ... Perhaps you saved yourself from the sea, but I’ll make you pay for this, damn it!”

Jan. 20, 2012: Costa’s CEO tells Italian state TV that Schettino relayed inaccurate information to the company and crew and downplayed the seriousness of the situation after the ship hit the rocks, delaying the mobilization of proper assistance.

July 9, 2013: Schettino goes on trial for manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing the shipwreck. The trial is held in a 1,000-seat theater on the mainland in Grosseto, a spacious venue so survivors and relatives of victims could attend.

July 20, 2013: Five Costa employees are convicted of manslaughter in a separate trial, receiving sentences of less than three years after entering plea bargains.

Sept. 17, 2013: Fog horns wail shortly after 4 a.m. to announce the Concordia had been wrenched from its side and reached vertical after 19-hour operation using chains and weighted tanks to right it from the seabed.

Oct. 8, 2013: The remains of one of the two people still missing is located by divers working on the wreck, later identified as Italian Maria Grazia Trecarichi.

Feb. 1, 2014: A Spanish diver working on the Concordia wreckage dies after apparently gashing his leg on an underwater metal sheet, news reports say.

July 23, 2014: As boat sirens wail and bells toll, the Concordia begins its final voyage as it is towed from Giglio to be turned into scrap. It arrives in Genoa’s shipyard on July 27.

Nov. 3, 2014: The body of Indian waiter Russel Rebello, the last missing victim, is found by crews dismantling the vessel for scrap in Genoa.

Feb. 11, 2015: The court in Grosseto convicts Schettino and sentences him to 16 years in prison for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the vessel before passengers and crew had been evacuated, as well as for giving false information about the gravity of the collision.

May 31, 2016: An appeals court in Florence upholds the conviction and sentence for Schettino after both the prosecution and defense appealed. The prosecution sought to toughen the sentence to 27 years while the defense argued that blame didn’t fall solely on Schettino.

May 12, 2017: Schettino loses his final appeal and heads to prison after Italy’s highest Court of Cassation upholds his previous conviction and 16-year sentence.

January 2018: Coast Guard Cmdr. De Falco, who won international fame for his rant against Schettino, nominates himself as a lawmaker for Italy’s 5-Star Movement political party. He is expelled from the party later that year.

December, 2021: A Genoa court orders Costa Crociere to pay 92,700 euros ($105,000) to Concordia passenger Ernesto Carusotti in one of the few civil lawsuits to reach a verdict against the company.

This version corrects the spelling of Grosseto.

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The Costa Concordia Disaster: How Human Error Made It Worse

By: Becky Little

Updated: August 10, 2023 | Original: June 23, 2021

Many famous naval disasters happen far out at sea, but on January 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia wrecked just off the coast of an Italian island in relatively shallow water. The avoidable disaster killed 32 people and seriously injured many others, and left investigators wondering: Why was the luxury cruise ship sailing so close to the shore in the first place?

During the ensuing trial, prosecutors came up with a tabloid-ready explanation : The married ship captain had sailed it so close to the island to impress a much younger Moldovan dancer with whom he was having an affair.

Whether or not Captain Francesco Schettino was trying to impress his girlfriend is debatable. (Schettino insisted the ship sailed close to shore to salute other mariners and give passengers a good view.) But whatever the reason for getting too close, the Italian courts found the captain, four crew members and one official from the ship’s company, Costa Crociere (part of Carnival Corporation), to be at fault for causing the disaster and preventing a safe evacuation. The wreck was not the fault of unexpected weather or ship malfunction—it was a disaster caused entirely by a series of human errors.

“At any time when you have an incident similar to Concordia, there is never…a single causal factor,” says Brad Schoenwald, a senior marine inspector at the United States Coast Guard. “It is generally a sequence of events, things that line up in a bad way that ultimately create that incident.”

Wrecking Near the Shore

The Concordia was supposed to take passengers on a seven-day Italian cruise from Civitavecchia to Savona. But when it deviated from its planned path to sail closer to the island of Giglio, the ship struck a reef known as the Scole Rocks. The impact damaged the ship, allowing water to seep in and putting the 4,229 people on board in danger.

Sailing close to shore to give passengers a nice view or salute other sailors is known as a “sail-by,” and it’s unclear how often cruise ships perform these maneuvers. Some consider them to be dangerous deviations from planned routes. In its investigative report on the 2012 disaster, Italy’s Ministry of Infrastructures and Transports found that the Concordia “was sailing too close to the coastline, in a poorly lit shore area…at an unsafe distance at night time and at high speed (15.5 kts).”

In his trial, Captain Schettino blamed the shipwreck on Helmsman Jacob Rusli Bin, who he claimed reacted incorrectly to his order; and argued that if the helmsman had reacted correctly and quickly, the ship wouldn’t have wrecked. However, an Italian naval admiral testified in court that even though the helmsman was late in executing the captain’s orders, “the crash would’ve happened anyway.” (The helmsman was one of the four crew members convicted in court for contributing to the disaster.)

A Questionable Evacuation

Evidence introduced in Schettino’s trial suggests that the safety of his passengers and crew wasn’t his number one priority as he assessed the damage to the Concordia. The impact and water leakage caused an electrical blackout on the ship, and a recorded phone call with Costa Crociere’s crisis coordinator, Roberto Ferrarini, shows he tried to downplay and cover up his actions by saying the blackout was what actually caused the accident.

“I have made a mess and practically the whole ship is flooding,” Schettino told Ferrarini while the ship was sinking. “What should I say to the media?… To the port authorities I have said that we had…a blackout.” (Ferrarini was later convicted for contributing to the disaster by delaying rescue operations.)

Schettino also didn’t immediately alert the Italian Search and Rescue Authority about the accident. The impact on the Scole Rocks occurred at about 9:45 p.m. local time, and the first person to contact rescue officials about the ship was someone on the shore, according to the investigative report. Search and Rescue contacted the ship a few minutes after 10:00 p.m., but Schettino didn’t tell them what had happened for about 20 more minutes.

A little more than an hour after impact, the crew began to evacuate the ship. But the report noted that some passengers testified that they didn’t hear the alarm to proceed to the lifeboats. Evacuation was made even more chaotic by the ship listing so far to starboard, making walking inside very difficult and lowering the lifeboats on one side, near to impossible. Making things worse, the crew had dropped the anchor incorrectly, causing the ship to flop over even more dramatically.

Through the confusion, the captain somehow made it into a lifeboat before everyone else had made it off. A coast guard member angrily told him on the phone to “Get back on board, damn it!” —a recorded sound bite that turned into a T-shirt slogan in Italy.

Schettino argued that he fell into a lifeboat because of how the ship was listing to one side, but this argument proved unconvincing. In 2015, a court found Schettino guilty of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, abandoning ship before passengers and crew were evacuated and lying to authorities about the disaster. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. In addition to Schettino, Ferrarini and Rusli Bin, the other people who received convictions for their role in the disaster were Cabin Service Director Manrico Giampedroni, First Officer Ciro Ambrosio and Third Officer Silvia Coronica.

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Captain arrested in Italian cruise ship wreck

— -- Italian authorities have arrested the captain of a 3,200-passenger cruise ship that ran aground and tipped over late Friday, killing three people, injuring 20 and leaving up to 51 others still missing. Survivors, meanwhile, described a chaotic evacuation as plates and glasses crashed, and they crawled along upended hallways trying to reach safety.

CNN reports that the Italian captain, Francesco Schettino, was arrested late Saturday and is being investigated for manslaughter and abandoning ship. Authorities were looking at why the ship didn't hail a mayday during the accident near the Italian island of Giglio on Friday night. The ship is owned by Genoa-based Costa Cruises, a mass-market line that caters to an international clientele and whose parent comnpany is the industry giant Carnival Corporation.

Three bodies — two French tourists and a crew member from Peru — were recovered from the sea after Costa Cruises' 6-year-old Costa Concordia ran aground near the coast of Tuscany late Friday, tearing a 160-foot gash in its hull and sending in a rush of water.

The ANSA news agency, quoting the prefect's office in the province of Grosseto, said authorities have accounted for 4,165 of the 4,234 passengers and crew who had boarded the liner. Costa said about 1,000 Italian passengers were onboard, as well as more than 500 Germans, 250 North Americans, about 160 French and about 1,000 crew members.

By morning Saturday, the ship was lying virtually flat off Gigio's coast, its starboard side submerged in the water and the huge gash showing clearly on its upturned hull.

Passengers described a scene reminiscent of "Titanic" — which sank 100 years ago this April —complaining the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate and once the emergency became clear, delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many of them to be released.

Under U.S. Coast Guard and the International Maritime Organization's Safety of Life at Sea regulations, cruise ships must conduct a safety drill within 24 hours of sailing with instructions on the use of life jackets and how and where to muster in an emergency. But passengers are not required to attend, and cruise lines vary in how quickly they hold the drill and how stringently they enforce passenger participation.

Helicopters plucked to safety some people who were trapped on the ship, some survivors were rescued by boats in the area, and witnesses said some people jumped from the ship into the dark, cold sea. Coast guard rescuers were continuing to search the ship for passengers.

Authorities still hadn't counted all the survivors by the time they reached mainland 12 hours later.

"It was so unorganized, our evacuation drill was scheduled for 5 p.m." on Saturday, said Melissa Goduti, 28, of Wallingford, Connecticut, who had departed on the Mediterranean cruise on Friday. "We had joked 'What if something had happened today?'"

"Have you seen 'Titanic?' That's exactly what it was," said Valerie Ananias, 31, a schoolteacher from Los Angeles who was traveling with her sister and parents on the first of two cruises around the Mediterranean. They all bore dark red bruises on their knees from the desperate crawl they endured along nearly vertical hallways and stairwells, trying to reach rescue boats.

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Costa Concordia: Captain Arrested, 41 Missing After Italy Cruise Ship Disaster [PHOTOS & VIDEO]

Update: Costa Concordia: Italy Cruise Ship Death Toll Rises to 5, Captain Arrested

The captain of the Costa Concordia, the luxury Italian cruise ship that ran aground off Tuscany on Friday, killing at least three people, was arrested on Saturday, according to reports.

About 100 people were rescued from the sea and 41 passengers are still missing, according to the Agence France-Presse. The Costa Concordia had more than 4,000 people on board when it hit a reef, ripping a 70- to 100-meter (230- to 330-foot) hole in its hull, AFP reported.

The captain, Francesco Schettino, and first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, have been arrested and could face multiple homicide charges and having abandoned the ship before the passengers were rescued, according to Italian media.

Reuters reported that Schettino was arrested on suspicion of multiple manslaughter charges, as well as being charged with causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. He was taken to a jail in the provincial capital Grosseto to await questioning by a magistrate, according to reports.

AFP reported that Grosseto prosecutor Francesco Verusio told reporters that the captain approached Giglio Island in a very awkward way, hit a rock that stuck into its left side, making [the boat] list and take on a huge amount of water in the space of two or three minutes.

Some 42 are reported injured, two of them seriously.

Italian officials are still trying to figure out why the 114,500-ton Costa Concordia didn't issue a mayday call during the accident. The Italian cruise ship was carrying 4,299 people of whom more than 3,000 were passengers. There were 989 Italians, 569 Germans, 462 French nationals and 177 Spaniards on board, according to AFP.

MSNBC reported that a U.S. State Department official estimated that there were 126 Americans among the people who were on the Costa Concordia. No Americans were injured.

You can see photos of the accident to the top left of this article.

Watch amateur footage of the ship sinking below:

© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.

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Police arrest cruise ship captain.

AFP / Getty Images

Authorities have arrested the captain of a 4,200-passenger cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Italy Friday night, killing at least three people, with up to 70 still missing. The captain is being investigated for manslaughter and abandoning ship. Authorities were baffled as to why the ship didn't hail a mayday and only contacted them after an emergency evacuation was underway. The Costa Concordia hit a sand bank near the island of Giglio, sustained a 160-foot tear in its hull, and tipped into the cold water. Passengers said that the lights went out during dinnertime, and people rushed for lifeboats as the ship listed in a scene reminiscent of the film Titanic . Some survivors blamed the disorder on the crew, who they said lacked an emergency plan, but an angry crew member wanted to know why they were sailing so close to shore. Among the dead were two French tourists and one crew member from Peru.

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Ten years on, Costa Concordia continues to haunt survivors and islanders: A look back at the cruise ship disaster

In what many call as the modern Titanic, a massive luxury liner ran aground off Italy’s Giglio island and toppled over into freezing waters on 13 January 2012, killing 32 people

In what is dubbed as modern-day ‘Titanic’, ten years ago, on 13 January 2012, Costa Concordia, a vast, luxury liner, had run aground off Italy’s Giglio island and toppled over into freezing waters, in a disaster that left 32 people dead.

The liner, carrying 4,229 people from 70 countries, ran aground while many passengers were at dinner.

As Italy marks the 10th anniversary of the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster with a daylong commemoration that will end with a candlelit vigil, we take a look at what happened that fateful day and what were the consequences of such a tragedy.

What happened then?

More than 4,000 passengers and crew were on board when the ship crashed into rocks in the dark in the Mediterranean Sea, sending seawater rushing into the vessel as people scrambled for their lives.

The ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, had been performing a sail-past salute of Giglio when he steered the ship too close to the island and hit the jagged reef, opening a 230-foot gash in the side of the cruise liner.

Passengers struggled to escape in the darkness, clambering to get to the lifeboats.

Alaska resident Nate Lukes, who was on board with his wife and four daughters, recounting the horror was quoted as telling The Today Show _, “There was really a melee… that is the best way to describe it. It’s very similar to the movie ‘Titanic.’ People were jumping onto the top of the lifeboats and pushing down women and children to try to get to them.”_

Concordia survivor Georgia Ananias told the Associated Press , “I always said this will not define me, but you have no choice. We all suffer from PTSD. We had a lot of guilt that we survived and 32 other people died.”

Passenger Ester Percossi recalled being thrown to the ground in the dining room by the initial impact of the reef gashing into the hull, which she said felt “like an earthquake.” The lights went out, and bottles, glasses and plates flew off the tables and onto the floor.

“We got up and with great effort went out on the deck and there we got the life vests, those that we could find, because everyone was grabbing them from each other, to save themselves," she recalled. “There was no law. Just survival and that is it.”

Captain arrested

After initial investigations into the incident, Prosecutor Francesco Verusio confirmed passenger allegations that Schettino abandoned the Concordia before all the passengers and crew had been evacuated.

In 2013, Schettino went on trial for manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing the shipwreck. Two years later in February, the court in Grosseto found him guilty and sentenced him to 16 years in prison for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the vessel before passengers and crew had been evacuated, as well as for giving false information about the gravity of the collision.

His final appeal in 2017 was rejected and he is now serving his sentence at Rome’s Rebibbia prison.

Indian connection

The Costa Concordia tragedy hit home after it was revealed that 32-year-old Russel Rebello, hailing from Naigaon, near Mumbai, was working on the ship as a 32-year-old waiter.

Kevin, his brother, was quoted as saying about that night to AFP , “He had been ill that night. He was in his cabin when it flooded with water. He rushed out barefoot in shorts and met a friend who lent him clothes… He helped people into lifeboats. He was still helping them when the ship tilted over sharply, and people fell into the water. No-one saw him after that.”

On 3 November 2014, his body was finally retrieved from the waters by the crews dismantling the vessel for scrap in Genoa.

Marking the tragedy

A noon Mass will be held at Giglio’s church to honour the 32 people who died in the shipwreck, while survivors and relatives of the dead will place a wreath in the water where the hulking liner finally came to rest on its side off Giglio’s coast.

With inputs from agencies

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First Video and Images of the Cruise Ship Sinking In Italy Remind Me of the Titanic (Updated)

The 984-foot-long cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground on the island of Giglio, Italy, killing at least three people. More than 4,000 people have been evacuated, but 50 are still missing. The night photos remind me of the sinking Titanic.

Suggested Reading

The accident didn't involve an iceberg, but it sounds pretty similar: passengers heard a loud crash sound during dinner. At first, the captain told them that the ship had an electrical problem but the evacuation started almost immediately after that, as they were ordered to put on their life jackets and walk to their emergency rafts.

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The situation worsened quickly. Officials said the evacuation became extremely difficult as the ship sunk and the inclination increased dramatically. According to Giuseppe Linardi—prefect of the city of Grosseto, in the Tuscany region—many panicking passengers jumped into the sea as the Costa Concordia started to quickly lean to the side. About 150 of those have already been rescued.

Talking to local media, a passenger described the scene: "it was a nightmare, if felt like the Titanic, we thought we were going to die [...] people shouting and kids crying in the middle of the most absolute darkness."

One of the passengers was journalist Mara Parmegiani, who also described the situation referring to the Titanic. She said that some of the life jackets and the emergency lights weren't working. In addition to that, "there were problems deploying some of the evacuation boats, to the point in which [her] boat's pilot had to be substituted." Apparently, the crew wasn't completely prepared to take care of the situation.

Some passengers said the evacuation was really slow, taking an hour and a half between the impact and the time they left the ship. They pointed out that some of the crew members told them that the captain knew the situation was grave, but he didn't act accordingly.

4,179 people have been accounted, 14 of them injured. There were a total of 4,229 registered passengers and crew members in the ship, which was cruising through the Mediterranean. According to the manufacturer, the Costa Concordia can hold 3,780 passengers and 1,100 crew members. The city prefect says they are searching frantically for the missing people.

Ennio Aquilino, chief of firefighting services of the city of Grosetto, says that the hull is breached on both sides. The ship owners, the Italian company Costa Crociere, says they don't know yet what was the cause of the accident.

I just can't believe this has happened on a calm sea, in this age of GPS and digital cartographies. [ Russia Today , BBC News , El Mundo , Fox News ]

Update: The ship's captain—who left the ship two hours after the accident—has been arrested by the Italian police under charges of involuntary manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship. According to Grosseto's chief prosecutor, Francesco Verusio, "the captain approximated Giglio clumsily, hitting a rock on its left side, making the ship to lean, which caused a large amount of water to enter the hull in just two or three minutes." [ El Mundo ]

The arrested captain and his sinking ship.

A dramatic shot at night, just as the ship started to sink.

A closer shot at night.

A view of the ship from the island of Giglio.

Aerial view.

Closer view from above.

The island of Giglio, Italy, where the ship ran aground.

Ship captain arrested following deadly cruise accident

The captain of a luxury cruise liner that ran aground off the Italian coast on Friday was arrested Saturday. Two French and one Peruvian national were killed in the accident. Some 40 of the 4000 passengers are still missing.

Issued on: 14/01/2012 - 17:59 Modified: 14/01/2012 - 21:24

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AFP - The captain of a luxury cruise liner that keeled over off Tuscany, killing three people and leaving 41 unaccounted for, was arrested Saturday as survivors told of scenes "like the Titanic".

Terrified passengers tried to get into lifeboats and at least one person reportedly jumped into the sea.

The Costa Concordia with more than 4,000 people on board apparently hit a reef, tearing a 70- to 100-metre (230- to 330-foot) gash in its hull, just hours after setting off from the Italian port of Civitavecchia near Rome on Friday.

The ship quickly listed, leaving it half submerged in shallow waters near the island of Giglio.

Less than 24 hours after the accident, the captain, Francesco Schettino, was arrested, prosecutors said, and Italian media reported that he faced possible charges of multiple homicide and abandoning ship before all passengers were rescued.

Coastguards meanwhile said divers had recovered the ship's "black box" which should contain records of the precise route and conversations among the crew.

But 41 people who had been on board were still missing late Saturday, said the local governor Giuseppe Linardi and port officials.

Passengers earlier described panic and confusion on board after they felt the ship run into something as they sat down for dinner on Friday.

"There were scenes of panic like on the Titanic. We ran aground on rocks," passenger Mara Parmegiani was quoted by Italian media as saying. "We were very scared and freezing."

Another survivor, cruise ship worker Fabio Costa, said people panicked and began pushing in order to get into lifeboats.

"Everything just started to fall and everybody started to panic and run," he was quoted as saying by the BBC.

"We had no idea how serious it was until we got out and we looked through the window and we saw the water coming closer and closer. Everything happened really, really fast," he said.

"Everybody tried to get on the boats but people started to panic so they were pushing each other and the crew was trying to help. A lot of people were falling down the stairs," he added.

Earlier Saturday, Schettino told Italian television that the vessel had hit a rocky spur while cruising in waters which, according to the charts, should have been safe on Italy's west coast.

"As we were navigating at cruise speed, we hit a rocky spur," he told Tgcom24 television station:

"According to the nautical chart, there should have been sufficient water underneath us," he added.

An executive with the company that owns the Italian cruise ship also insisted that the vessel had not strayed off course.

"It is not correct to say that the boat was off its route," Gianni Onorato, managing director of Costa Crociere told reporters on Porto Santo Stefano, near the site of the accident.

But according to Giorgio Fanculli, the only journalist on the island of Giglio, off which cruise ship ran aground, the vessel was too close to land.

"It was the classic passage, the cruise liners do it often, all lights lit up ... but here, he went too close, a lot more than usual," said Fanculli, who saw the vessel sink and also witnessed the rescue operation.

A 70-year-old French passenger who did not give his name said he realised immediately that the situation was serious after a first impact at the left rear of the ship around 9:45 pm (2045 GMT) and a second collision shortly afterwards.

Emergency services said about 40 people were wounded, including two seriously, with concussion and spinal injuries.

"There are three certified dead," Linardi told Italian media.

The ANSA news agency said the dead had been identified as two French passengers and a Peruvian crew member.

The people on board included some 60 nationalities and about 52 were children up to the age of six. Nearly a third of the passengers were Italian, followed by Germans and French. There were also Americans, Russians and Japanese on board.

Indian Mondal Mithun, a 26-year-old restaurant manager on the Costa Concordia who was on his first cruise, said that in his area there was only "one lifeboat for 150 passengers".

Reports earlier said one of the victims was a man in his 70s who died of a heart attack caused by the shock to his system when he jumped into the sea.

The ship was left lying on its left flank and divers were deployed in the search for survivors.

Fire service spokesman Luca Cari told AFP inspections were "complicated because there is a risk that one of the floors would collapse."

Rescue services hope that the ship, lodged on the rocks, will not slide deeper into the sea.

Police also warned of the risk of pollution as some 2,380 tonnes of oil remains in the ship's tanks.

Shocked passengers crammed into the island's few hotel rooms and a local church. Hundreds were being transferred by ferry to the Tuscan resort town of Porto Santo Stefano, which is linked to the Italian mainland.

Passengers had been initially told the ship had shuddered to a halt for electrical reasons, before being instructed to put on their life-jackets and head for lifeboats.

The ship had been headed for the port of Savona in northwest Italy. It was then scheduled to visit the French port of Marseille and Barcelona in Spain.

The cruiseliner boasts 58 suites with balconies, five restaurants, 13 bars, five Jacuzzis and four swimming pools.

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