Monday, January 16, 2012

Mayor: Cruise ship rescue operations suspended


The U.S. Embassy in Italy, on its Twitter feed, said two of the 120 Americans who were aboard the ship still had not been accounted for. It was not clear Sunday as to the nationalities of other missing people, with CNN affiliates having reported Italians, Peruvians, Brazilians, French and Britons were all represented on the ship.

All 109 Russians on board have been accounted for, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced late Sunday.

There were fears the death toll could rise as rescuers searched the ship, which was nearly 50% submerged and had a gash in its hull, authorities said.


Questions and criticism continue about what caused the shipwreck and the adequacy of the response.

Speaking on Italian television, the ship's captain insisted the rocks that the Concordia hit were not marked on his map.

"On the nautical chart, it was marked just as water," Schettino said, adding that the ship was about 328 yards (300 meters) from shore.

But Nicastro, the Coast Guard spokesman, insisted that the waters where the ship ran aground were well-mapped. Local fishermen say the island coast of Giglio is known for its rocky sea floor.

"Every danger in this area is on the nautical chart," Nicastro said. "This is a place where a lot of people come for diving and sailing. ... All the dangers are known."

He said the Coast Guard was investigating why the ship took the course it did.

"We know where the ship was," he said. "We know it was too close to the island. ... We don't know why."

Italian prosecutors seized the ship's data recorders Saturday. Costa Cruses said Sunday that it can only access that information with authorities' permission.

Built in 2006, the Concordia had been on a Mediterranean cruise from Rome with stops in Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.

The ship was carrying about 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members when it ran aground and began taking on water Friday night.

The crew kept going because they believed the vessel could continue sailing normally, said Nicastro, the Coast Guard spokesman. Realizing there was a significant safety problem, the commander steered the Costa Concordia closer toward the port of Giglio, he said.

Authorities are looking at why the ship didn't send a mayday during the accident.
Besides the two elderly people, the dead include two French tourists and a crew member from Peru, port authorities in Livorno said. One of the victims was a 65-year-old woman who died of a heart attack, authorities said.

Source-cnn

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