At least three people are dead and 70 are missing after a luxury cruise ship carrying 4,000-plus passengers struck a sandbar off the coast of Italy. Why the Costa Concordia ran aground is still unknown. Here’s CNN.

“They had just finished eating dinner on their cruise, the first night of the cruise, and the ship -- the electricity -- went off. And they describe what they felt as a shudder 


as this ship ran -- literally ran aground on the sandbar, which cause a huge gaping hole in the hull of the ship.”

With the ship’s damaged hull quickly taking on water, attempts to escape the cruise liner were delayed 45 minutes as the crew tried to lower lifeboats. MSNBC says the scene was pure chaos.

“Some passengers said it felt like being on the Titanic. The ship listed sharply to the right. Lifeboats started falling on passengers. Some jumped into the ice-cold sea. The shore was 200 yards away... too far for some of them.”

129 Americans were on board the ship, and all made it to shore safely. Still, the ship’s passenger records show as many as 70 people still missing as of Saturday evening in Italy. A travel columnist for the BBC says it’s unbelievable this sort of disaster could play out for such a large, modern cruise ship.

“I’ve been speaking to a lot of people within the cruise industry this morning, of course, and they are just astonished that this should happen to a 21st Century ship at a time when, clearly, everything is designed with safety in mind.”

The incident is raising concerns about the size of modern cruise liners. A representative of the Nautilus International shipping staff union told the UK’s Daily Mail:

“Many ships are now effectively small towns at sea, and the sheer number of people onboard raises serious questions about evacuation... the sheer size and scale of such ships presents massive challenges for emergency services, evacuation, rescue, and salvage - and we should not have to wait for a major disaster until these concerns are addressed.”

NBC reports the ship was at least four nautical miles off-course when it capsized. Rescue teams are continuing their search for the missing by both air and sea.