'The captain never turned up,' says Argentine survivor of cruise ship tragedy

Argentine survivors of the Costa Concordia cruise ship which flipped on its side after hitting a rock on Friday night close to the island of Giglio, off the west coast of Italy, started arriving in Argentina today.

The passengers gave chilling accounts of the tragic events to the press waiting for them at Ezeiza international airport. “They told us it was an electric problem. The captain never turned up,” says Argentine cruise ship tragedy survivor judge María Inés Lona who was travelling with her two daughters.

“The captain was the first one to leave. He never addressed us.”

“The absence of the captain terrified us and the crew,” explained the seventy two-year-old judge who saved herself by swimming to Giglio Island. “ My daughters thought I had drowned.” Lona also told that in the lack of proper evacuation instructions she decided, along with other passengers, to throw herself in the water.

At least 18 Argentines were on board the Costa Concordia at the time of the accident.