Indian crewmen

Grosseto - Indian crew members say a stricken cruise ship’s alarm sounded very late and they didn’t realize the scale of the disaster off Italy’s coast until the ship started rolling on its side. Four men flown to New Delhi on Thursday were the first to return out of 203 Indians who were aboard the Costa Concordia, which slammed into a reef Friday off the Tuscan island of Giglio after the captain made an unauthorized diversion. All but one of the Indians aboard the ship were crew members, and one Indian man is among 21 people missing. Ship waiter Mukesh Kumar, 26, said «the emergency alarm was sounded very late,» only after the ship «started tilting and water started seeping» in. Another crew member who worked in the kitchen also said he didn’t realize the scale of the disaster until the ship started rolling onto its side.

«The ship shook for a while, and then the crockery started falling all over,» Kandari Surjan Singh said. «People started panicking. Then the captain ordered that everything is under control and that it was a normal electric fault ... so people calmed down after that.» Another eight Indians on the same flight continued traveling on domestic flights from New Delhi. About 60 in total were arriving Thursday around India, with most others due back on Friday, officials said. Capt. Francesco Schettino is under house arrest and faces possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship, after he left the craft before the more than 4,200 passengers and crew members had safely evacuated. Eleven people have been confirmed dead. The ship’s operator, Crociere Costa SpA, is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp.