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The cruise ship Costa Concordia partially sank on the night of 13 January 2012 after hitting a reef off the Italian coast and running aground at Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, requiring the evacuation of the 4,252 people on board. Thirty people are known to have died; two others were still missing as of April 2012, and presumed dead; and 64 others were injured (at least two seriously). Two passengers and a crewmember trapped inside were rescued in the days after the incident.
Captain Francesco Schettino had deviated from the ship's computer-programmed route to treat people on Isola del Giglio to the spectacle of a close sail-past or near-shore salute. The ship was on the first leg of a planned 6-port cruise from Civitavecchia when she hit a reef off Isola del Giglio and started to take in water, flooding the engine room and generators, causing the ship to drift for more than an hour off the eastern shore of Isola del Giglio before running aground and being evacuated.
After the event, Schettino was arrested on preliminary charges of multiple manslaughter in connection with causing a shipwreck, failing to assist 300 passengers, and failing to be the last to leave the wreck. He was subsequently also charged with failing to describe to maritime authorities the scope of the disaster (for which seven other officers and managers of Costa Cruises are under investigation) and with abandoning incapacitated passengers.
Bodies of crew and passengers trapped in the wreck were still being found in the first few months of 2012; salvage operations were scheduled to begin in May.
The Costa Concordia entered service for Costa Cruises in July 2006 as the largest ship built in Italy at the time, measuring 114,137 GT, 290.2 metres (952 ft) long, and costing €450 million (US$569 million). By tonnage, it is the largest passenger ship to have sunk. Industry analysts believe the vessel is a constructive total loss. Costa Cruises has offered specific compensation terms to passengers and intends to refloat the ship.
news reports at the time : 17th January Update Italian rescuers have found five more bodies inside the cruise ship that ran aground after hitting rocks on Friday, raising the confirmed death toll to 11.
The Costa Concordia captain, Francesco Schettino, is to be held under house arrest, his lawyer says. He faces possible manslaughter charges.
A recording of a call between Capt Schettino and a port official shortly after the crash appears to suggest he left the ship before the passengers.
16th January Update Six people were killed and about 15 remain missing after the hull of the Costa Concordia was torn open by rocks late on Friday off the Tuscan coast.
The search for survivors has temporarily been suspended after the ship slipped in rough weather.
"The company will be close to the captain and will provide him with all the necessary assistance, but we need to acknowledge the facts and we cannot deny human error," Costa Cruises Chief Executive Officer Pier Luigi Foschi told a news conference in Genoa.
Mr Foschi said Costa's ships have their routes programmed and alarms sound when they go off course.
Source :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16576979 
The Ship's Captain is under Arrest Italy cruise ship Costa Concordia aground near Giglio
Three people are confirmed dead after a cruise ship carrying more than 4,000 people ran aground off Italy.
There were scenes of panic as the Costa Concordia hit a sandbar on Friday evening near the island of Giglio and listed about 20 degrees. People reached land by lifeboats but some swam ashore.
Rescue teams have been going from cabin to cabin, searching for survivors.
Italians, Germans, French and British were among the 3,200 passengers. There were also 1,000 crew on board.
Helicopters evacuated the last 50 people on the deck who were in a "worsening" situation.
Mediterranean cruise
Three people were confirmed dead, Italian coast guard officials said on Saturday morning - fewer than the six or eight deaths reported by Italian media earlier.
The Costa Concordia had sailed earlier on Friday from Civitavecchia port near Rome for a Mediterranean cruise, due to dock in Marseille after calling at ports in Sicily, Sardinia and Spain.
One thousand passengers were Italian, with 500 Germans and 160 French.
Some "tens" of British passengers are believed to have been on board, said the UK Foreign Office, which is sending a team to the scene.
Some passengers told the Associated Press the crew had failed to give instructions on how to evacuate the ship. An evacuation drill was scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
"It was so unorganised, our evacuation drill was scheduled for 17:00 (16:00 GMT)," Melissa Goduti, 28, from the US told AP. "We had joked what if something had happened today."
'Groaning noise'
Passengers were eating dinner on Friday evening, when they heard a loud bang, and were told that the ship had suffered electrical problems, one passenger told Italy's Ansa news agency.
"We were having supper when the lights suddenly went out, we heard a boom and a groaning noise, and all the cutlery fell on the floor," said Luciano Castro.
Passenger Mara Parmegiani told Italian media there were "scenes of panic".
"We were very scared and freezing because it happened while we were at dinner so everyone was in evening wear. We definitely didn't have time to get anything else. They gave us blankets but there weren't enough," she said.
The 290-metre (950 ft) vessel ran aground, starting taking in water and listing by 20 degrees, the local coast guard said.
Orders were given to abandon ship, Deodato Ordona, a cabin steward on the Costa Concordia, told the BBC.
"We announced a general emergency and took passengers to muster stations," he said.
"But it is hard to launch the lifeboats, so they moved to the right side of the ship, and they could launch."
Elderly passengers were crying, said Mr Ordona, adding that he and some others jumped into the sea and swam roughly 400 metres to reach land.
Rescued passengers were accommodated in hotels, schools and a church on Giglio, a resort island 25km (18 miles) off Italy's western coast.
Most have now been moved to the mainland, Elizabeth Nanni from Giglio's tourist information service told the BBC.
"Usually there are 700 people on the island at this time of year, so receiving 4,000 and some in the middle of the night wasn't easy," she said. "Some people jumped in the sea so they had hypothermia."
Searches are still going on for "possible missing people", regional official Giuseppe Linardi told the Italian broadcaster RAI.
Once the search of the cabins above the waterline has been completed, scuba divers will then check the decks which were submerged by the crash.
Coast guard official Francesco Paolillo, a local coast guard official, told the AFP news agency there was a 30m hole in the ship but that it was too early to say what exactly had happened.
"We think this happened as a result of sailing too close to an obstacle like a reef," he said.
Costa Cruises, the company which owns the ship, said it could not yet say what had caused the accident.
"The gradual listing of the ship made the evacuation extremely difficult," a statement said. "The position of the ship, which is worsening, is making more difficult the last part of the evacuation.
"We'd like to express our deepest gratitude to the coastguard and other emergency services, including the authorities and citizens of the island of Giglio, who did their best in saving and helping the passengers and crew."
Two years ago, a Costa Cruises ship crashed into a dock at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, killing three members of the crew.
source -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16558910 
