Cruise Ship In Italy Capsizes, Search For Missing Suspended

The cruise ship Costa Concordia has capsized, forcing the search for the missing 16 people to be suspended. Despite being balanced on rocks, the Costa Concordia has started to slip. Luca Cari, the spokesman for the fire brigade, said: “There was a slippage of nine centimetres vertically and 1.5 centimetres horizontally. We evacuated immediately. This is something we have been worried about. Operations are suspended. We will have to monitor the stability of the ship and we don’t know when we will resume operations.”

Correspondent Nick Pisa had this to say: “If it slips of the ledge it is 100m to tjhe bottom of the Mediterranean Sea and there are dive teams in the there. They can’t take any chance of that happening because it would result in fatal consequences for those involved.” Italian Minister of Environment, Corrado Clini, said: “It has been our nightmare. The vessel has reservoirs full of fuel, it is a heavy diesel which could sink down to the seabed, that would be a disaster.” Earlier in the day, a sixth body was found. The tragedy of the sinking of Costa Concordia has been compared to the Titanic.

Captain Francesco Schettino is currently being blamed for the accident. The owner of the ship said: “We are working with investigators to find out precisely what went wrong aboard the Costa Concordia. While the investigation is ongoing, preliminary indications are that there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship’s Master, Captain Francesco Schettino, which resulted in these grave consequences. The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and the captain’s judgment in handling the emergency appears to have not followed standard Costa procedures.”

See capsizing video below and latest search news below:

Source: The Telegraph