Monday, 16 January 2012The owner of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground Friday killing at least six people, says the vessel's captain made "errors of judgment."
The Costa Crociere ship lines said Sunday the captain had brought the Costa Concordia too close to shore and made decisions during the emergency that did not follow company procedures set by international standards. The company did not specify what steps Captain Francesco Schettino failed to take.
He is in jail facing manslaughter charges for allegedly sailing off course and abandoning ship while the passengers struggled to find safety.
Investigators have begun analysis of the cruise ship's data recorders, which recorded the ship's movements leading up to the accident.
A sixth body was found just before dawn Monday, leaving at least 14 people still missing, including several crew members.
The cruise ship with more than 4,000 people on board ran aground late Friday off the northern Italian coast and capsized.
Survivors have described a chaotic and terrifying evacuation. One of them was an American tourist from Arkansas, who said some people had to swim to the shore.
"We were all standing there, and as the boat started going a little quicker, turning, I saw one of the cranes. It popped the life raft, and it exploded and it went boom! And it just crashed. There were two people on it, they got off I think. We saw like five people jump in the water and start swimming, and I looked and the other crane next to me, which was three feet above water, one meter above water, was like two meters below water," he said.
When the ship hit the rocks, officials say, passengers were instructed to put on life jackets and to take to life rafts. However, those on board said the hull tilted so sharply and quickly that many lifeboats could not be lowered into the water.
The Costa Concordia is 290 meters long, with 13 decks. It had 13 bars, five restaurants, four swimming pools and 500 balconied staterooms. |
Monday, 16 January 2012
VOA News
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