The captain of a Carnival Corp. cruise liner ordered the ship off its programmed route, an “error” that caused it to hit rocks off Italy’s coast in an accident that killed at least six people, the chairman of the cruise ship’s operator said.
The Costa Concordia’s route was set electronically before it left Civitavecchia near Rome, carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew, on Jan. 13 and the ship shouldn’t have been so close to the Giglio island where it struck rocks, ripping a hole through its hull, Costa Crociere Chairman Pier Luigi Foschi said at a press conference in Genoa. The Italian company is controlled by Carnival.
