Rome (CNN) -- At least three people were killed and scores remain unaccounted for as a giant cruise ship keeled onto its side after running aground near the Italian island of Giglio on Friday night, local emergency officials said Saturday.

Rescue teams worked through the night to evacuate more than 4,000 people from the Costa Concordia, owned by Genoa-based Costa Cruises, after it ran aground off of Italy's western coast.

Giuseppe Orsina, a spokesman for the local civil protection agency, told CNN: "We are verifying the different lists of passengers and staff that have been given to us from Costa and at the moment from 43 to 51 people are missing.

"These people could be still on the island of Giglio, in private houses or in hospitals."

The coast guard said 50 to 70 people could be missing.

Authorities said earlier Saturday they believed everyone was accounted for, but that they did not have a definitive list of names.

The huge ship, which which is now lying on its side in shallow water, was carrying about 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members when it ran aground at about dinner time.

Read more here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/14/world/europe/italy-cruise-deaths/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

How does this happen now a days?









More Photos and full Story Here>>>
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ds-newsxml

Authorities: Crew member rescued from inside ill-fated cruise ship

Porto Santo Stefano, Italy (CNN) -- The purser of the ill-fated Costa Concordia was rescued Sunday morning after crews found him trapped in a restaurant, more than a day after the ship hit rocks off the coast of Tuscany, killing at least three people and injuring 20 others, authorities said.

snip

Speaking on Italian television, the captain of the ship insisted the rocks were not marked on his map.

"On the nautical chart it was marked just as water," Francesco Schettino said, insisting that his ship should have been more than 100 meters (yards) from the rocks.

snip

The captain, Schettino, was detained later Saturday for investigation of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship while passengers were still on board, chief prosecutor Francesco Verusio told ANSA.

Verusio also said first officer Ciro Ambrosio also was being detained for questioning on similar charges, according to ANSA.

snip

The Concordia was 2.5 miles off route when it struck the rocky sandbar near Giglio, said Nicastro.

"There are rocks, they are on the maps," Nicastro said. "What we know is the ship went really close to these rocks. ... We don't yet know why."

The ship began taking on water Friday night, and the crew kept going because they believed the vessel could continue sailing normally, Nicastro said. Realizing there was a significant safety problem, the commander steered the Costa Concordia closer toward the port of Giglio, he said.

Authorities also were looking at why the ship didn't hail a mayday during the accident.

snip

Read more here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/15/world/europe/italy-cruise-deaths/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

If true, this is just waayyy too sad. According to reports they were 2.5 miles off course.

Captain's favor to head waiter to blame for cruise ship disaster?

Story updated 3:43 p.m. ET: The captain of the luxury cruise ship that capsized after hitting rocks off Italy had sailed perilously close to the coast to "make a bow" to people on a Tuscan island, according to media reports.

Francesco Schettino made the dangerous maneuver so that the Costa Concordia's head waiter could salute his family on land, according to reports.

Schettino denies charges of manslaughter and his lawyer has said his actions had saved many lives.

The father of the ship's head waiter told Reuters that his son had telephoned him before the accident to say the crew would salute him by blowing the ship's whistle as they passed by the island of Giglio, where both the waiter, Antonello Tievoli, and his 82-year-old father Giuseppe live.

"The ship obviously came too close," the elder Tievoli said, according to Reuters.

"I don't know if Antonello asked the captain to come near, but the responsibility is always the captain's."

Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted witnesses as saying that shortly before the accident, the captain called the head waiter to the bridge saying, “Antonello, come see, we are very close to your Giglio.”

Read more here: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/16/10164356-captains-favor-to-head-waiter-to-blame-for-cruise-ship-disaster

WOW on one hand it's a VERY nice gesture by the Captain to do that for one of his crew but very foolish on the other for putting his passengers lives at risk.

You wanna be cool do it when the ship is empty NOT full of paying pasengers

Updated at 9:07 a.m. ET: Rescue workers discovered the bodies of five passengers in the cruise ship wreck, according to Reuters. The discovery came hours after Italian naval divers used explosives to blow holes in the ship's hull in an effort to find 29 missing passengers.

Meanwhile, a transcript of a conversation between the cruise liner's captain, Francesco Schettino, and the nearby port authority was released this morning.

In the recording, the port official can be heard urgently commanding the captain to return to the cruise ship after he had abandoned it.

"There are people trapped on the boat," the official says. "Now you take your dinghy and go back to the ship."

The captain replies, "Listen, commander, let me tell you one thing ... The ship is on its side."

As the port official loses patience with the captain, he says, "Listen Schiatino, you may have been saved by the sea but I can assure you I can make you go through a lot of trouble. Get on board now."

The captain continues to give excuses for why he cannot return to the boat, saying that it is dark, that he is coordinating the rescue effort and that another dinghy that would transport him to the ship is stalled. He finally relents and tells the port official, "I'm going instantly."

NBC News is reporting that the captain had a history of disobeying orders. Schettino, according to Italian news reports, had once left Marseilles, France, in bad weather, against company policy and coast guard orders. The captain was also once reportedly caught sailing too close to the shore in another part of Italy.

Read more here: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/17/10171694-5-bodies-found-in-cruise-ship-wreck

... and he was allowed to continue to be captain of a huge cruise liner with so many souls aboard?


Michael Murphy, national vice president of government relations for the largest union of merchant marines officers in the United States:

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/17 ... z1jv2AUiL8


current death toll: 11, 21 still missing:
21 missing from Italian cruise liner, divers resume search


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 553130.cms

Dondep

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3518&p=41135&hilit=cruise+ship#p41135


Simple Simon

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3518&p=41109&hilit=cruise+ship#p41109

Ya know what's crazy? This!



Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/18/4196360/lloyds-list-tracking-data-shows.html#storylink=cpy

Yeppers, folks, this should (note I did not say could) have happened in August but for the grace of God did not.

Gives me chills to think how close that route was to the rock that ultimately did the ship in.

Last night on AC 360, Anderson Cooper showed a map with both routes on it. The route in August was closer to the shore.

Interesting Blue thanks for that

So we're back at the possibility proposed on the GT that "something" changed the ocean floor in that area between the first cited route change and the one that sank the ship....