The Costa Cruise company, which owns the vessel that capsized off the Tuscan coast says it appears the captain likely made an error.
In a statement released late Sunday, it said: "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 remarks come as survivors have begun telling harrowing stories of their escape from the sinking ship and of what they say was incompetence by the crew.
Survivors also say the company has done little to assist them since the incident.
"They haven't taken care of absolutely nothing," American Lynn Kaelin told CBC News on Sunday.
Also on Sunday, divers with the Italian coast guard uncovered the bodies of another two people in the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia, bringing the total of dead to five, according to officials.
The bodies of two elderly people were found near the ship's restaurant, still wearing their life jackets, Coast Guard spokesman Capt. Cosimo Nicastro told reporters.
During the chaos of Friday night, Kaelin said passengers were confused about what to do when the luxury boat ran aground off the Tuscan coast. She heard an announcement telling them to gather on the fourth floor and once there, they were told to go up another floor.
"They never, ever made an announcement to abandon ship," recounted Kaelin, who said when passengers started to realize they had to do that, none of the crew seemed able to help.
"No one had any directions ... and they were all these young kids — there were no adults — who had no training [and] they didn't know how to release the boats."
In Sunday's statement, Costa Cruises also said "all crewmembers hold a BST (Basic Safety Training) certificate and are trained and prepared in emergency management and to assist passengers abandoning the ship with numerous drills."
The statement also said the company was "working closely with the authorities to support ongoing search-and-rescue operations [and] on ensuring that all guests and crewmembers return home safely. Our immediate priority is to account for all passengers and crew, and to secure the vessel to ensure that there are no environmental impacts."
Meanwhile, a third person was discovered inside the overturned Costa Concordia cruise ship and airlifted to safety Sunday, officials said, more than 36 hours after the luxury liner ran aground off the Tuscan coast He has been identified as Manrico Gianpetroni, an Italian national and a senior member of the crew. Officials say he has serious leg injuries.
The rescue comes as officials lowered the number of people still unaccounted for to more than 10 — from as many as 70 reported missing in the wake of the disaster.
Earlier, a South Korean couple on their honeymoon were rescued when firefighters in the unsubmerged part of the ship heard their screams.
The couple responded during the door-to-door search of cabins aboard the Costa Concordia and were brought to safety in good condition, officials said.
Coast guard officer Marcello Fertitta said firefighters had difficulty pinpointing where the pair was on the cruise ship and called in a specialized search team.
The Italian cruise ship with 4,234 people aboard ran aground a few hundred metres off the tiny island of Giglio near the coast of Tuscany late Friday.
French officials on Saturday said two of the victims were Frenchmen; a Peruvian diplomat identified the third victim as Tomas Alberto Costilla Mendoza, 49, a crewman from Peru. Some 30 people were injured, at least two seriously.
The 12 Canadians known to be aboard are in good condition and accounted for, Foreign Affairs spokesman Claude Rochon said.
Italian officials have been matching names on the cruise ship's list of passengers and crew with those of survivors. A number of people have been taken to the French port of Marseille.
Meanwhile, a prosecutor confirmed that officials were investigating the captain of the Costa Concordia ship for suspected manslaughter and abandoning ship.
The captain, Francesco Schettino, was detained on Saturday for questioning by prosecutors, who are investigating him for suspected manslaughter, abandoning ship before all others, and causing a shipwreck, state TV and Sky TV said. Authorities confirmed Sunday that First Officer Ciro Ambrosio has also been detained.
Prosecutor Francesco Verusio was quoted by ANSA as saying Schettino deliberately chose a sea route that was too close to shore. The 52-year-old captain has worked for Costa Cruises for 11 years
ANSA reported Schettino will be held until next week, when a judge will decide whether he should be released or formally put under arrest.
According to news reports, Schettino has insisted that he and Ambrosio were the "last to leave the ship." Schettino also told Italian television that he didn't realize there was a massive rock there because the "nautical charts had marked it was water."
A French couple who boarded the Concordia in their home of Marseille, Ophelie Gondelle and David Du Pays, said they saw the captain in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket, well before all the passengers were off the ship. They insisted on telling a reporter what they saw, so incensed that — according to them — the captain had abandoned the ship before everyone had been evacuated.
"The commander left before and was on the dock before everyone was off," said Gondelle, 28, a French military officer.
"Normally the commander should leave at the end," said Du Pays, a police officer who said he helped an injured passenger to a rescue boat. "I did what I could."
According to the Italian navigation code, a captain who abandons a ship in danger can face up to 12 years in prison.
Schettino has said the ship hit rocks that weren't marked on his nautical charts, and that he did all that he could to save lives.
"We were navigating approximately 300 metres from the rocks," he told Mediaset television. "There shouldn't have been such a rock."
He insisted he didn't leave the liner before all passengers were off, saying "we were the last ones to leave the ship."
But that wasn't the case. In addition to the three people recovered from on board by rescue crews Saturday night and Sunday, police divers and rescue crews on Sunday circled the wreckage searching for more of the missing.
Crews in dinghies touched the hull with their hands, near the site of the 50-metre-long gash where water flooded in and caused the ship to fall on its side.
Coast guard officials have said divers would enter the belly of the ship in case anyone is still inside.
Coast guard spokesman Capt. Filippo Marini told Sky Italia TV that Coast Guard divers have recovered the so-called "black box" with the recording of the navigational details from a compartment now under water.
A couple from Wingham, Ont., were among the Canadian survivors. Alan and Laurie Willits were watching the magic show in the ship's main theatre when they felt an initial lurch, as if from a severe steering manoeuvre.
"[The ship] steered quickly to the right, the ship banked. It was sliding us out of our seats … and then there was a shudder. You could tell we definitely hit something," Alan Willits told CBC News in a telephone interview from Rome on Saturday.
Willits said it took some time before passengers were informed of how serious the problem was.
"They were saying it was a generator problem. A generator problem would not make a ship start leaning," he said. "We should have been in the life boats sooner, in my opinion."
Costa Cruises released a statement on Saturday saying the captain "performed a maneouvre" to protect the ship's passengers.
"Captain [Francesco] Schettino, who was on the bridge at the time, immediately understood the severity of the situation and performed a maneouvre intended to protect both guests and crew, and initiated security procedures to prepare for an eventual ship evacuation.
Unfortunately, that operation was complicated by a sudden tilting of the ship that made disembarkation difficult.”
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