Europe, Boat Accidents | featured news

A recorded conversation between the captain of a sinking cruise ship and a coast guard officer suggests the captain tried to abandon ship.

Shares of cruise operator Carnival Corp plunged 15 percent on Tuesday after a ship operated by its unit struck a submerged rock and keeled over off the coast of Italy late on Friday.

A stricken Italian cruise liner shifted on its rocky resting place as worsening weather disrupted an increasingly despairing hunt for survivors and authorities almost doubled their estimate of the number missing to 29 people.

The captain of the cruise ship that capsized off Tuscany made an unauthorized, unapproved deviation from its programmed course, a "human error" that led to the grounding of the vessel, the chief executive of the ship's Italian owner said Monday. At least six people died in the incident.