Prosecutor says captain left ship early

In a chaotic scene eerily evocative of the Titanic — which struck an iceberg and sank a century ago this April — at least five people have died and 15 remained missing Sunday after a state-of-the-art cruise ship hit an unidentified reef or rock and toppled over just off Italy's Tuscan coast Friday evening.

The 6-year-old Costa Cruises ship, in calm seas and good weather, had taken on water from a 160-foot-long gash. The Italian Coast Guard said its divers found two more bodies aboard the ship Sunday.

An Italian prosecutor confirmed allegations from passengers that the Italian captain abandoned ship before all of the Costa Concordia's 4,200 passengers and crew escaped.

• PHOTOS: Images from the disaster

• VIDEO: More bodies found on ship

Italian Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo says officers urged the captain, Francesco Schettino, to return to his ship and honor his duty to stay aboard until everyone else was safely off the vessel, but said Schettino ignored them.

Schettino is in custody and being investigated for manslaughter in addition to abandoning ship.

Authorities reduced the number of people still unaccounted for. An Italian who worked in cabin service was pulled from the wreckage in shallow water off the tiny island of Giglio. A South Korean couple on their honeymoon were rescued late Saturday in the unsubmerged part of the liner when firefighters heard their screams.

There are now six crewmembers and 11 passengers who haven't been located, Tuscany's regional president Enrico Rossi said. Two French tourists and a crewmember from Peru died.

As confusion swirled over the cause of the dramatic accident, questions about ship safety, crew preparedness and evacuation procedures are roiling the waters of a booming industry that drew an estimated 16 million passengers last year. Italy's Costa, a mass-market line that caters to an international clientele, is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise company.

The U.S. State Department says 120 Americans were on board. Two remain missing; none of the others were seriously injured, the department said. Cruise experts emphasized the rarity of the accident, which is the worst major cruise ship incident in modern history.

But survivors described a panic-filled evacuation as plates and glasses crashed and they crawled along darkened, upended hallways trying to reach safety.

There was no lifeboat drill after the ship's departure from Citavecchia (Rome), and passengers complained that the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate and delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many of them to be released.

Some passengers jumped into the sea while others waited to be plucked to safety by helicopters, and some lifeboats had to be cut down with an ax.

Timeline of events

How the events of the capsizing of the cruise ship Costa Concordia unfolded:

Friday 

10 p.m. Central European Time (4 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time). The Costa Concordia, About three hours after departing the Italian port of Civitavecchia near Rome with about 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crewmembers on a seven-day voyage, the Costa Concordia strikes a rock off the coast of Isola del Giglio. Passengers are sitting down to dinner when the rumble knocks wine glasses and plates of cuttlefish off the tables. The lights go off, and the ship begins to list. The ship had 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crewmembers.

10:30 p.m. The first alarm sounds, warning passengers about an electrical problem crewmembers are trying to fix. Officials say the captain, Francesco Schettino, initially tries to maneuver the ship into the port as water pours into huge gashes in the ship before ordering an evacuation.

10:45 p.m. Passengers become incredulous about the electrical problem as the ship tilts in the water, making it more difficult to abandon ship. Passengers begin panicking because few crewmembers speak Italian to offer instructions. Some crawl on bruised knees as hallways turn sideways.

Midnight. Some passengers wait two hours in the cold for their turn to be lowered in crowded lifeboats to the water as water creeps up to their ankles. Perhaps 100 passengers jump from the ship into the cold water and try swimming to shore. Island residents greet them with blankets and hot drinks.

A French couple say they see the captain in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket before all the passengers are off the ship. Police later detain Schettino on suspicion that he abandoned ship.

Saturday 

A 160-foot gash is visible in the side of the ship as it lie on its side in the rocky water. The Italian coast guard recovers the “black box” of navigational recordings.

Throughout the day, rescue crews in dinghies circle the wreckage, looking for survivors. About 40 people are believed to be missing.

Late Saturday evening, a South Korean couple honeymooning on the cruise are rescued from the unsubmerged portion of the ship, after firefighters hear their screams.

Sunday 

10 a.m. (4 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time). A helicopter airlifts a third survivor from the capsized ship 36 hours after it ran aground. Police divers and rescue crews continue circling the wreckage for survivors, placing their hands on the sides of the hull.

Italian coast guard divers find two more bodies aboard the ship – elderly people found in the dining room — bringing the total to five dead. Fifteen people remain missing.

Sources: Carnival Corp., The Associated Press and USA TODAY research by Bart Jansen.

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.

In the U.S., for example, Royal Caribbean and sister lines Celebrity and Azamara, like most U.S.-based lines, conduct all lifeboat drills before departure, Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Michele Nadeem says.

But, says cruise expert and guidebook author Fran Golden, while "cruise lines make a good effort to make people pay attention during drills, many don't."

Golden says another potential problem on ships such as the Costa Concordia, which draw passengers from many different countries, is the fact that all announcements are made in multiple languages, which "can be a bit of a recipe for chaos."

"Cruise lines for years have been saying the (sinking of the) Titanic could never happen again because of all the safety procedures put in place," Golden says. "It seems pretty clear there was a'perfect storm' of things that went wrong here."

Costa's president, Gianni Onorato, said in a statement Saturday that the Concordia's captain had the liner on its regular, weekly route when it struck a reef about 10 p.m. local time on Friday night. Italian coast guard officials said the circumstances were still unclear, but that the ship hit an unknown obstacle.

Despite some early reports that the captain was dining with passengers when his ship crashed into the reef, he was on the bridge, Onorato said.

The Associated Press reports Schettino is being held in a jail in Grosseto, Italy, until next week, when a judge will decide whether he should be released or formally put under arrest. The chief prosecutor in the Tuscan city of Grosseto, Francesco Verusio, was quoted by the ANSA news agency as telling reporters that the captain "very ineptly got close" to the vacation island of Giglio, about 18 miles off the Italian coast, the AP reports.

"The ship struck a reef that got stuck inside the left side, making it (the ship) lean over and take on a lot of water in the space of two, three minutes," he said.

There were no firm indications that anyone was trapped under the sunken ship. Rescuers carried out extensive searches of the waters near the ship for hours and "we would have seen bodies," Coast Guard Capt. Cosimo Nicastro said.

"It was so unorganized, our evacuation drill was scheduled for 5 p.m." on Saturday, said Melissa Goduti, 28, of Wallingford, Conn., 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.

"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.

Deaths at sea

Notable passenger ship disasters of the last century:

April 15, 1912:  The passenger steamship Titanic sinks after striking an iceberg in the Atlantic, killing at least 1,517 people.

May 29, 1914:  The Empress of Ireland, a Canadian steamship, collides in fog with a Norwegian freighter and sinks, killing 1,012 people.

May 7, 1915:  Cunard Line’s RMS Lusitania sinks after being attacked by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 people.

Oct. 25, 1918:  Canadian Pacific Railway’s Princess Sophia sinks after grounding near Juneau, Alaska, in a storm. All of the estimated 343 passengers and crew go down with the ship.

Sept. 9, 1919:  Pinillos Line’s Valbanera sinks near Havana, Cuba, during a hurricane, killing all 488 passengers and crew.

Sept. 8, 1934:  Ward Line’s Morro Castle catches fire and burns off the coast of New Jersey, killing 137 passengers and crew.

July 25, 1956:  Two passenger ships, the Andrea Doria of Italy and Stockholm of Sweden, collide off Massachusetts, sinking the Andrea Doria and killing 46.

Nov. 12, 1965:  Yarmouth Cruise Lines’ Yarmouth Castle catches fire and sinks while sailing between Miami and Nassau, Bahamas, killing 90 people.

Aug. 31, 1986:  The Soviet passenger ship Admiral Nakhimov collides with a cargo vessel in the Black Sea, sinking and killing 423.

March 23, 2006:  Princess Cruises’ Star Princess catches fire near Jamaica, killing one passenger and causing significant damage.

April 5, 2007:  Louis Cruise Lines’ Sea Diamond sinks near the Greek island of Santorini after running aground on a reef, killing two passengers.

Jan. 13, 2012:  Costa Cruises’ Costa Concordia runs aground off the Italian coast and partially sinks in shallow water, killing at least five people.

Note: The list is of incidents involving ocean liners and cruise ships, but not passenger ferries, day cruise boats or river ships.

Source: USA TODAY research

"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.

Some 30 people were reported injured, most of them suffering only bruises, but at least two people were reported in grave condition.

The evacuees were taking refuge in schools, hotels, and a church on Giglio.

Officials say the captain appears to have taken the vessel close to shore in a dangerous manner, Reuters said.

"There was a dangerous close approach which very probably caused the accident, although it will be for the investigation to establish that fully," coast guard spokesman Luciano Nicastro told SkyTG24. He said the captain then attempted a safety maneuver, setting anchor and bringing the ship closer to the shore to facilitate a rescue.

A top official from an international maritime union representing 23,000 workers says the disaster signals a need for a review of all cruise ships because their enormous size raises concerns about their safety.

"In this, the centenary of the loss of the Titanic, major nostalgia industry is already in full flow, but it is essential that everyone recognizes that the Titanic offers lessons for today and that there are contemporary resonances that should not be lost," says Mark Dickinson, general secretary of Nautilus International based in Britain.

In particular, he cited concerns about the size of modern cruise ships and the need for better evacuation plans.

"Many ships are now effectively small towns at sea, and the sheer number of people on board raises serious questions about evacuation," Dickinson said. "The growth in the size of such ships has also raised questions about their water-tight integrity and fire-fighting protection."

Costa defended the actions of the crew and says it is cooperating with the investigation.

The Concordia had a previous accident in Italian waters. In 2008, when strong winds buffeted Palermo, the cruise ship banged against the Sicilian port's dock, and suffered damage but no one was injured, ANSA said. In February 2010, another Costa ship, the Europa, hit a pier in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, killing three crew members.

Despite the fact that Costa draws few American passengers, the fact that it is a modern vessel will impact cruise sales on this side of the Atlantic as well, at least temporarily, said Mike Driscoll, editor of the industry publication Cruise Week.

"From what travel agents are telling me, that horrifying image (of the massive ship on its side) is going to turn the cruise industry on its side, too," said Driscoll.

Ross Klein, a sociology professor at Memorial University in Canada who has written two books on the cruise industry, says the disaster was one of the worst for the industry in years, but that it shouldn't dampen future sales.

"I think this will likely prove to be one of the worst disasters for many years," Klein says. But he add, "While this might have an impact on cruise bookings in the very near term, I don't expect the impact will be significant in the near or long term."

"I think most cruise passengers accept that there is a small risk on a cruise and they will look past this event," Klein says.

Klein did anticipate a "huge economic hit" on Carnival Corp. both in lost revenue, losing the ship and compensating passengers and crew. He notes there can be myriad environmental problems, not just from fuel leaks, but hazardous chemicals and other pollutants in the electronics.

"It has to be a real nightmare for the company," Klein says. "The scale of issues and concerns is difficult to fathom."

Contributing: Bart Jansen in Washington, The Associated Press

via rssfeeds.usatoday.com