45°Good afternoon
The cruise ship Costa Concordia lies stricken off the shore...

The cruise ship Costa Concordia lies stricken off the shore of the island of Giglio, Italy. More than four thousand people were on board when the ship hit a sandbank. (Jan. 14, 2012) Credit: Getty Images

The first course had just been served in the Costa Concordia's dining room when the wineglasses, forks and plates of cuttlefish and mushrooms smashed to the ground.

At the magic show, the trash cans tipped over and the curtains turned on their side. Then the hallways turned upside down, and passengers crawled on bruised knees through the dark. Others jumped alone into the cold Mediterranean Sea.

The escape from the luxury liner was straight out of a scene from "Titanic" for many of the 4,000-plus passengers and crew on the cruise ship, which ran aground off the Italian coast late Friday and flipped on its side with a 160-foot gash in its hull.

At least three bodies have been recovered. But late Saturday, rescuers doing a door-to-door search of cabins found a South Korean couple. The honeymooners were in good condition, officials said.

Close to 40 people remained unaccounted for.

The captain, Francesco Schettino, was detained for questioning by prosecutors, investigating him for suspected manslaughter, abandoning ship before all others, and causing a shipwreck, state TV and Sky TV said.

Prosecutor Francesco Verusio was quoted by the ANSA news agency as saying Schettino deliberately chose a sea route that was too close to shore.

Schettino's lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, told the agency: "I'd like to say that several hundred people owed their life to the expertise that the commander of the Costa Concordia showed during the emergency."

France said two of the victims were Frenchmen; a Peruvian diplomat identified the third victim as Tomas Alberto Costilla Mendoza, 49, a crewman from Peru. Some 30 people were injured, at least two seriously.

Costa Crociera SpA, which is owned by the U.S.-based cruise giant Carnival Corp., defended the actions of its crew and said it was cooperating with the investigation.

Carnival Corp. issued a statement expressing sympathy that didn't address the allegations of delayed evacuation.

The ship began its lurch at the beginning of dinner service in the ship's dining room, where passengers described a scene of frantic confusion.

Silverware, plates and glasses crashed down on them from the upper floor balcony, children wailed and darkened hallways upended themselves after the ship began its lurch.

"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.

"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."

There were 126 U.S. citizens aboard the liner, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Rome told Newsday, and none were believed to have been injured.

A U.S. State Department official said there no reports of injuries among the Americans.

Christian Arca, 24, of Chicago, said his mother, Maria, of White Plains, N.Y., was aboard and he had received a text from her traveling companion Friday night: "We crashed and boat is sinking," it read in part.

Arca said his mother, 57, a diabetic, had taken the cruise as a vacation from her job in the infant department at the White Plains Nordstrom store.

With Sarah Crichton

SUBSCRIBE

Unlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 6 months

ACT NOWSALE ENDS SOON | CANCEL ANYTIME