EVIDENCE

Ship Search Gets Complicated

Reports of unregistered passengers and publicity stunts.

As the death toll from the Costa Concordia shipwreck hits 13, more potentially damning evidence against the company has emerged. Italian officials said Sunday that there may have been several unregistered passengers aboard the ship. Italian news media, meanwhile, released part of a leaked interrogation with the ship’s captain, where he says he piloted the ship near the shore under orders from the company as part of a publicity stunt—what he calls a “recurring practice.” As if that weren’t enough, another portion of the transcript reportedly reveals that the captain says the wooden lifeboats used to ferry people to shore were so cumbersome that they may have hit—and “broken”—a few heads during the disorderly evacuation. Costa Cruises has denied all allegations.