Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground and keeled over off the Italian island of Giglio in Tuscany

On Friday January 13 2012, the Costa Concordia carrying more than 4,000 people ran aground on a reef at around 21:00 local time off Isola del Giglio, having left Savona earlier that evening at the beginning of a seven-day cruise and intending to visit Civitavecchia, Palermo, Tunis, Cagliari, Palma, Barcelona, and Marseille.

It was reported that at about 20:00, passengers were in the dining hall when there was a sudden, loud bang, which a crew member (speaking over the intercom) ascribed to an "electrical failure". "We told the guests everything was okay and under control and we tried to stop them panicking," cabin steward Deodato Ordona recalled. It was about an hour before a general emergency was announced, he said. "

Giancarlo Sammatrice, 22, a cook from Vittoria, Sicily, was on vacation with his girlfriend. “I have always been scared of those boats, but my girlfriend kept on saying that it was romantic, and I gave in,” he said. “There were not enough lifeboats. The pilots were not sailors but waiters who had no idea how to maneuver and kept on having us turning in circles.”

“It was the first and certainly the last cruise of my life,” he said.

This image taken from Il Secolo's website reportedly shows 25-year-old Domnica Cemortan. The Moldovan woman is believed to have been the blonde female seen dining with Costa Concordia Capt. Francesco Schettino shortly before the ship crashed Friday night, according to the newspaper.

Thur 1/19/12 : The search for 21 people still missing in the Costa Concordia shipwreck resumed Thursday amid reports the captain was seen dining with a mystery woman -- who may have been on board illegally -- shortly before the liner crashed off the Italian coast.

The woman is believed to be Domnica Cemortan, a 25-year-old Moldovan, thought to be the same blonde woman seen dining with Capt. Francesco Schettino Friday evening, almost an hour before the ship struck a reef, killing at least 11 people, the Italian newspaper Il Secolo reported Thursday.

The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, was arrested on Saturday.

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July 2014 update:
The wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship in front of the harbor of Isola del Giglio, Italy, after it was refloated using air tanks attached to its sides, on July 23, 2014. The Costa Concordia was towed away from the spot where it crashed on the night of January 13, 2012 in a disaster that killed 32 people.