7 Top Reasons to Never Go on a Cruise
Your ship could capsize, your captain could abandon ship—but wait, there are even more good reasons to never go to sea.
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In the cruise restaurant, still wearing life jackets.
The bodies of two elderly people were found Sunday in the belly of the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that ran aground off the Italian coast late Friday, bringing the death toll to at least five. More than a dozen people are still unaccounted for. The two dead were recovered from the ship’s restaurant, still wearing their life jackets. The captain of the ship, who’s been arrested, insisted that the rocks the ship hit were not marked on his map, but a Coast Guard spokesman disputed the claim, saying the waters were well mapped. “We know where the ship was. We know it was too close to the island ... We don’t know why.”
Seventeen are still missing after a massive cruise ship went aground off the Italian shore. Barbie Latza Nadeau reports from the scene on one couple’s unlikely escape—and why the captain is in custody.
The giant carcass of the Costa Concordia lies like a beached whale 200 meters off the shoreline of Giglio, a tiny tourist island off Italy’s Tuscan coast. Red curtains flutter in the broken cabin windows and champagne bottles and life jackets bob in the calm sea nearby. Of the more than 4,000 passengers and crew, five are confirmed dead and 17 remain unaccounted for after several passengers identified themselves, including four Japanese tourists who came forward to authorities in Rome. Divers from the Italian Coast Guard searched in vain on Saturday, fearing that some passengers may have been crushed between the rocks and the 115,000-ton luxury cruiser as they tried to escape.
Dozens are still missing after a massive cruise ship went aground off the Italian shore. Barbie Latza Nadeau reports from the scene on one couple’s unlikely escape—and why the captain is in custody. (Remo Casilli / AP Photo)
Other rescue workers hit the jackpot early Sunday morning—they found a couple from South Korea who had been trapped in their above-water cabin. The passengers’ door had jammed in the accident and they had been crying for help in the dark. Their cabin was just a few meters above water level, and they could hear helicopters above and workers banging on the metal hull below. Rescue workers spent 90 minutes trying to free the couple, who were then taken to a local hospital. They were on their honeymoon; it was their first cruise. “We could hear the rescuers’ noises,” the man, whose name has not been released, told reporters on the shore. “We were waiting for someone to rescue us.”
The Daily Beast later witnessed the dramatic rescue of a third survivor precariously lifted from the wreckage Sunday morning. The survivor was an Italian crew member who was found in the restaurant area of the sunken ship. He was suffering from hypothermia. A doctor was lowered into the wreckage to stabilize him before he was lifted out.
AFP / Getty Images
After 4,200-passenger boat capsized off Italy.
Authorities have arrested the captain of a 4,200-passenger cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Italy Friday night, killing at least three people, with up to 70 still missing. The captain is being investigated for manslaughter and abandoning ship. Authorities were baffled as to why the ship didn't hail a mayday and only contacted them after an emergency evacuation was underway. The Costa Concordia hit a sand bank near the island of Giglio, sustained a 160-foot tear in its hull, and tipped into the cold water. Passengers said that the lights went out during dinnertime, and people rushed for lifeboats as the ship listed in a scene reminiscent of the film Titanic. Some survivors blamed the disorder on the crew, who they said lacked an emergency plan, but an angry crew member wanted to know why they were sailing so close to shore. Among the dead were two French tourists and one crew member from Peru.
After their ocean liner ran aground in Italy, killing five, passengers tell Barbie Latza Nadeau of their fights for survival in the sinking ship's pitch-black warren of cabins.
Laurie and Alan Willits from Ontario, Canada, had just settled in their seats to watch a magic show after finishing dinner on the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Tuscany when the lights went out.
“They told us over the PA system that they were having an electrical problem, but then there was a jolt and it felt like the ship lurched and then you just heard this shuffling, scraping sound,” Alan Willits told The Daily Beast. “Then I slid off my seat onto the floor.”
AP Photo
The Willitses were among the 4,234 passengers and crew whose Mediterranean holiday turned into a fight for survival when the luxury liner ran aground around 10:30 p.m. yesterday, Friday the 13th. On Saturday, three people were confirmed dead (update: a total of five people were confirmed dead on Sunday) and as many as 70 still unaccounted for in what could be one of the worst Mediterranean sea disasters in recent years.
Updates from Italy
Concordia's Reckless Captain
The Concordia’s Daredevil Captain
Barbie Latza Nadeau on perma-tanned womanizer Francesco Schettino—and the charges he faces.
Smoking Gun
'Get on Board, Damn It!'
Tragedy
Race Against Time in Shipwreck
A Look at the Costa Concordia Under Water
Eerie new footage shows the wreckage of the Costa Concordia underwater, as divers search for survivors of the accident.
