Francesco Schettino investigated for manslaughter and abandoning ship after three die and 69 go missing
The Italian captain of a ship that sank off the coast of Tuscany was placed under arrest after one of the most dramatic holiday cruise disasters ever seen in the Mediterranean. Three passengers died and 69 were still unaccounted for after the 114,000-tonne Costa Concordia smashed into rocks amid scenes of panic and chaos.
Local prosecutors said Francesco Schettino was being investigated for manslaughter and abandoning ship following reports his stricken vessel failed to raise a mayday alert as the disaster unfolded.
There was speculation that a power failure on board the ship could have led to it losing navigational control and crashing into the rocks. Experts said that passenger reports of a power blackout and large blast indicated the vessel could have suffered an explosion in the engine room.
As the ship came to rest half submerged on its side, yards from the coast of the island of Giglio late on Friday, anger rose 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 drowned in the accident. About 30 people were reported injured, with three critically hurt.
A British embassy official said not all the Britons on board the vessel had yet been accounted for. He said consular officials had so far confirmed that "around 20" survived.
Survivors described extraordinary scenes of panic, confusion and fear as the ship tilted on its side following what sounded like a loud explosion. Kirsty Cook, one of eight British dancers working on the cruise, said she was "lucky to be alive" after using a rope ladder to climb down to a waiting 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 he had struck rocks "which were not indicated on maps" and 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 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 ship 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 tilting of the ship, one lifeboat that had been eventually loaded with passengers crashed back into the ship.
"There was panic immediately," said Francesca Sinatra, a passenger from Rome. "People were shouting and climbing on each other." The lifeboat she was in collided a number of times with the listing hull as it was lowered into the water due to the angle, she added.
Italian journalist Mara Parmegiani Alfonsi, who was on board, said the crew did not appear to have been trained for the emergency.
Rescue ships arrived to help take passengers off as the vessel tipped closer to the water. Helicopters were dispatched by the coastguard, navy and air force to hoist passengers 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.
Cruise operator Costa Crociere said in a statement: "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".