Abandonship News Today

Phone. >> most of us have cell phones with our kids on our contact lists, their phone numbers hadnt been memorized. i didnt know who to call so i called a girl friend i had for 30 years and her husband answered the phone and i said, vernon, we are on a life boat and i dont know if were going to make it and i said could you just say good-bye to our kids? and he said youre what? youre where? i said just listen to be me, we are in italy, on a life boat being taken off a ship because it looks like w...

Yet, but we had to pay careful attention. it was like stepping on a crooked sidewalk tile. and the people in the hallway were running back and forth shouting in italian and french and german and that helped contribute to the chaos and confusion. by the end of the night, the only way we could walk down any of the corridors was in a corner like this because the ship had tilted over so far. so even just moving a short distance down the hall was really hard to do. >> at some point they announced tha...

Races. so that experience led me to believe that i could swim, you know, 700 yards with three people, dragging them. i could tell that they were in shock, they were afraid, and i kept letting them know that everything is going to be all right. relax and listen to what im telling you. and they didnt say anything. they just -- they had their eyes glued on me. >> about an hour after the boat hit, there was an overhead announcement abandon ship. and the people that had been waiting here now started ...

Except at this point in time we see that theres another boat that is coming in above us. that created more tension because we thought at that point in time that that boat was going to literally land on top of us. >> luckily the engine started and we were able to pull away. >> i decided i needed to be at my muster station because the ship was inclining to the right-hand side. after i had taken the register or the roll call of my crew members, i was supposed to be relieved by my superior. however,...

Spilled everywhere. there was food on the floor, it was slippery. >> there were people just sitting on the side crying. and i knew that that was a death trap. so at that moment i looked at benjie and said lets get out of here as fast as we can. and so we did. we ran and we ran out of the other side of the restaurant. >> and while we were in the restaurant figuring out whether we could climb down to our cabin again, the ship pivoted so that when we came out on the other side, we were facing open ...

Problem. theres something else, that somehow, some way were not being told. we started hearing messages in italian. i was having a hard time understanding. im fluent in spanish and english but not italian. and i was not able to make any sense of what was being said. >> the ship kept leaning further and further to one side, and we started talking about how could this really be an electrical fault? whats really happening and why wont they tell us? when we first came out of the cabin, the ship was ...

Mean abandon. thats it abandon ship, abandonship. and someone screamed women and children first. and i burst on to the life boat. i remember getting into the boat and on my right and left were two grief stricken women. they were trying uncontrollably. they were all screaming and crying for their husband. so i put my arms around them and i used my very limited german and my very limited spanish and told them that everything is okay. and i kept looking at the entrance of the life boat hoping that ...

Massive amount of people that were running around, screaming, looking for their relatives. people react differently when theyre afraid. there were grown people that were pushing kids, old people that theyre not as active or -- and they were pushing them out of the way. some people could have been pushed over the side. i mean, it was that chaotic. >> i decided that i needed to get into action. so i went to my muster station, which is master station 17 on deck for the front of the ship on the bow ...

That theyre aimed at, and thats to avoid panic. one of the messages i heard was for the doctor to be sent to the milan restaurant. and it sounded like there were two passengers who were injured, probably from the impact. and i also heard a coded message for engineers to go to the engine room. and i also heard a coded message which said that we have flooding. and at this point my superior walked past me and she said, "your job is to entertain the passengers so go back to your cabin and put on you...

For some and for others still on the ship, each choice may have meant life or death. coming up, a crew in crisis. >> the passengers got their evacuation notice but the crew did not and they began to panic and they were crushing one another. >> the couple left behind. >> that was a grim, grim moment. all the life boats are gone. now what do we do? >> when "dateline extra" continues. because, healthier doesnt happen all by itself. it needs to be earned every day. using wellness to keep away illnes...