stone but they got it wrong. the new memorial to dr. martin luther king jr. needs to be fixed but how? i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room." dramatic new pictures of the dangerous search and rescue effort off the italian coast where a cruise ship the size of a skyscraper lies on its side half submerged. the costa concordia struck rocks on friday night with 4200 people on board. six are known dead. 16 remain unaccounted for including two americans. look at these extraordinary images showing the massive gash ripped into the ship's hull. italian prosecutors say the captain made a grave error and could face serious charges. cnn's dan rivers is on the scene. >> reporter: wolf, this picture says it all about how precarious, difficult and dangerous this search and rescue operation is proving to be. it's been called off for several hours after the costa concordia started shifting, all of the rescue and fire officers were wenched off in a scramble as they felt the super structure move beneath them and now they're beginning to come back again to continue scouring the 2,000-odd cabins for any remaining survivors and, of course, for bodies. the chief executive of costa cruises has been defending the axes of the crew while admitting the actions of the captain may have contributed to this disaster. >> yes, the explanation that you wanted to shore the ship. and to nearby this island of giglio so he tried to change the course of the ship to go closer to the island and it passed through in front of the little city that sits on that island. >> reporter: it's still too early so say whether they can salvage this ship. what's more worrying and more pressing, perhaps, is the 2,300 tons of fuel which are aboard, as the environment minister said very urgent action is needed to avoid an environmental catastrophe. wolf? >> dan rivers on the scene for us. we'll be back shortly. stand by. meanwhile, two americans are among those unaccounted for and the state departments are gerald and barbara anne hyle. according to wcco, they are from what i bear lake, minnesota. they have four children and 15 grandchildren. so, how could such a catastrophic accident happen? tom foreman is joining us with a closer look. what are you finding out, tom? >> it seems to be all about time and size. look at what was happening at the time this happened. they're sailing off the coast of us t cuss any and they scale off into the port and instead they move for some distance and begin to turn. if they had started evacuating at the very moment they sensed they had a problem out here, according to industry standards, in about 30 minutes' time they should have had everyone off of the ship. i want to stress to you the size of this vessel because that's important. this is about two and a half to three football fields in length. it is much, much bigger than the titanic. about twice as many people were on board at the time this happened. between all of the passengers and the crew. so you had a whole city moving on the water here as you've often heard it described. it's very accurate. nonetheless, they made the turn and then they had to deal with the reality of what happened to them. yes, they have water-tight compartments that are supposed to keep them afloat after some accidents but very much like the titanic as people have been noting all day, this appears of the made a rip down the side of the ship which would have affected more than one compartment and created a big problem. a big rip down the side. look at how huge this is. it was probably traveling at about 16 to 18 miles an hour after you convert it out of knots, at the time of the impact so you can see the impact is really quite enormous. look at the ship itself. they have 11 different layers before you get to the top ones up here. this is a cross-section of it. this, truly, is say tremendous amount of space and consider what was going on. right now this is where the ship stands. if you were on the top deck and you could go inside judging from the photographs you would have water covering about this much of the deck up here. as you moved down and you started getting into the first areas of cabins, you can see that it's heavier in here. heavier in here. at one end of this, once you move a little further down you get into many more cabins with a lot more water down here. remember, people were trying to get out of here in the dark and, initially, without being told that they had to get off the ship. that's what we're told, at least to this point. the further down in the ship you go you can see how the water now is occupying much more of the area. get down into this area where there is actually a theater in this ship that goes over three stories down here. that theater now is probably completely under water. there's a casino and many restaurants and many people were dining at the time, we're told. this area is completely under water and by the time you work all the way down to the lowest cabins in here, wolf, look at this. right now, you're talking about all of these cabins. all in here all of these, on the bottom decks, being completely submerged at this point or, at least, very, very close to it. this is essentially the problem, wolf. everyone went into the dark. there were language problems. there were a lot of people on a ship that had just started sailing so even though they are required to have safety drills in the first 24 hours it's not clear that they had one. i was's supposed to happen the next morning, we believe. so time started passing from the time they were hit. no clear order for everybody to evacuate and things got worse from that point and this is where we stand at this point. a lot of questions. a lot of damage. and i know there are a lot of story for investigators to collect from all these people on board to say what went wrong. >> i've heard some say, you say the ship was much bigger than the titanic. i heard one report that it was three times as big as the titanic. is that the information you're getting? >> it could be. i don't know exactly in terms of weight, maybe but in terms of passengers it had about twice as many. titanic went down with, i think, 21 or 2200 on it, something like that. about 1500 perished in the titanic. in this case a little over 4,000 people, 1,000 being crew on board at the time. if i'm correct in my numbers and all that. this is an awful lot of people and think about it, wolf, if you were in any big shopping mall and the lights suddenly went out and there were no cleerp instructions, think of what would happen as people tried to figure out what to do in the next half hour. do they leave? do they stay? that's with nothing changing. and when the boat shifts, all sorts of things, like the ability to deploy lifeboats and everything else, gets affected by the process and the longer you wait the more it's affected and the more people are stumbling around in the dark with increasing fear and panic. >> that's what it was. panic. we'll speak to an american couple on board. it's been revealed this is not the first time this actual ship has been in an accident. on november 28th, 2008, the concordia collided with a they're in sicily during a storm. people on the ship at the time say the wind blew the ship about a half a mile away from the dock and it crashed sideways into the tank -- into a tanker. no one was hurt in the accident and we haven't been able to confirm who was the captain on board at the time. as far as costa cruise lines, this there have been at least two other collisions involving costa ships since 2008. one killed three crew members when a ship smashed into a pier in an egyptian port turn. four tourists were also injured. an ominous scraping sound, a massive collision, a loss of power and a ship suddenly taking on water. it was all too real for the passengers and the crew of the costa concordia and a very realistic setting maritime officers are trained to deal with exactly these kinds of emergencies at sea. our brian todd shows us how. >> reporter: we're here at the american maritime officer's union training center in florida. this is a simulator they call the 360 that takes you through every time of scenario. right now we're simulating running aground. this is captain larry rhymer, one of the trainers here. we're a few seconds away from a potential accident here near off coastline. you can see the ship moving slowly. we're trying to turn it. >> aground right now. stop engines. >> we've just run aground. hard to see it and feel it but we've definitely stop. they're going through some checklists right now. this is the procedure of what you do when you run aground. captain rhymer, tell us what we have to do immediately when we hit rocks or run aground. >> the first thank you have to do is stop the engine so you don't go harder aground, okay? then you'll have somebody on the team run through an operational check list for grounding. and signals to alert people you've got an emergency. make an emergency call on the radio. where we are, what the situation is. and then we're going to go from there and assess what the damage is and decide what we're going to do. >> okay. and in some cases they'll actually try to reverse the -- >> we may try to get her off but right now we don't want to do that yet because we don't know what the damage is. so maybe we're safer right here than to try to get her off into deeper water. >> under any circumstances does the captain leave the bridge in a situation like this? >> absolutely not. the captain is in operational command to make sure that all the operational procedures for the emergencies are followed. >> and he's got a full team here handling communications and all that? >> correct. >> and deploying to try to get the passengers together? and getting the passengers in a safe point. >> if we have to abandon ship, they're ready to go. >> all right, captain, thank you very much. this is part of what they go through. it's a very rigorous program, training captains from all over the world. thousands of captains have been through here so this is one of the drills. a pretty good similar rags of what to do in case of an accident on a cruise ship. brian todd, back to you. >> survivors are sharing gripping stories of disaster and disbelief. >> we went up to the top deck to look over to the side and we were shocked to see that we were right next to land. and i think at this point, that's when we realized that we were in trouble. >> later this hour, my interview with two survivors recalling a true night of terror. and jon huntsman drops out of the republican race for the white house and endorses a former rival. what impact will all of this have? and if you're going to misquote dr. martin luther king jr. don't carve it in stone. details of the controversy, and now the change, at his memorial. uh, i'm in a timeout because apparently riding the dog like it's a small horse is frowned upon in this establishment! luckily though, ya know, i conceal this bad boy underneath my blanket just so i can get on e-trade. check my investment portfolio, research stocks... wait, why are you taking... oh, i see...solitary. just a man and his thoughts. and a smartphone... with an e-trade app. ♪ nobody knows... [ male announcer ] e-trade. investing unleashed. it quits today. he madeew endorsing mitt cn south real carolina. joe, going on? >> reporter: wely, jon huntsman he's suspending his to call it, he's still out an theorc poll shows responders said she believe huntsmanchance to this november. for whose campaign failed to generate much the radar screen third-plewas n for the exits, he f negative campaigning. >> this race has slaught of neg. and not worthy ofriticalachb was no s the trail was damaging his you >> and it was huntsmanwitt, too more than one purported flip-flopping a a per full supportey. >> the candidate best equied in chai biggest problems. ambassador to china and that la suor goes getting properlyreally, on his record. know people told me all the that he governor so far job creation and taxreform. was for the second signing more pro-lif those sorts solve things this to d. the rhetoric that's been around, the supporters say that heid junkyard dog. ocess and even a loof were saying, he'syou're being t nice guy got to get in there a tussle upyou. so i think you saw himtoughness people timing of thisinterestin. two political the huntsman needed a out of new hash south carolina, wolf. >> i'll beowu then, joe this do. not much 5%. tract some of those voters ul. the more merit or more yoe had run the race heas impact in the the situation room" blog p really c gi final days or romney, maybe of . pelehat huntsman stands for. is heonservative?utah and that's a prettytive state. here's the new polls we're re hypothetical races, register. if the contest wer right sam linger could be aus ron fobama and 46 foratter who is the nomin tight remember 1992.arly iit eye-popps affect the issues perrot in on. he's managed to tamportant to a republicans and values' issue washington, that has a lot ofer obama. he is making the electability argumen electable.torum who's very evangelicals and you points bel obama. so that affects them in the elec >> they're pretty close all th president i would start nervous >> they got nominee will be. looked at this is always acaus tells you who's when we take hit the early you fluid. we ns are still moresubstantial i will reducedle back in october. -- and there i you have a very divisive kind of primary. in nominee,cans really when there's are's usually a ra around the think you can probably expect the samel they've changed since october. that's clear. as the republican field ney's r really tak of them. will join me right herewednesda gingrich. all of that this week in "the situation room." a ecstories and then, my interv disaster at sea., the boat was . and it waswalk in the ship. >> and t monitoring the other top sto else is goire. manufacturer bmwuter controlling the system. fa smoldering war engine compartment. rolls-royce vehicles were also recalled e to reset their cyberattack. hackers gained including names, numbers and the customers are told to e-mailmor from an aspiri star than to play one of guitars? he donated guitahalen said he he wants to give something >> i'm many years lisa? >> i didn't.deo on and share itr there. >> i was in a group cmonkeys" b time. >> all right. americans whoh them. they heard a a strange vibratio. then chaos!english, they said t under contro failure and there was a problem wi tntrol. and my husband and i lookell of. you know when i grow up, i want to be a volunteer firefighte you know when i grow up, i want to write a novel. i want to go on a road trip. hen i grow up, you know when i grow up, ii'm going to go there.. i want to fix up old houses. we believe you're never done growi.l in l. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. high schr you're never done growi.l in l. made me what i am today. s build it.vron,ee travel bag when you join r servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. ♪ back to och under way for 16 people unaccounted for rophic cruise ship accident. the subamericaed right now off the earlier, i spe who joining us , nancy i'll start with you. you first realized you were i t s theater watching a we heard a grinding sound anvib. so we to think concerned. people performinage. the lights flicked the people in t started to leav. perhaps to lookmbers. we top deck tond we were shocked to to land. an realized that andunfortunately, it wasn't30 t until there were languages. and in everything is there had been an the generator. looked at it. we started right side and that's whenreall crisis situation. >> what was the began to seeer? how what was goingon? knew what was going on problem. me confused andg through the shipwe members and they weren't have would send people in one direct. there wasn't, too much concern or initially.later, onc sounded signals th's little more tethink, due to the fact thatat really leaning r and it was actually ffship. >> and things we went to life preserver andouo flying across the roou ever seen the mvic?" this ship is bigger than the mo to through your mind? >> absolutely. in i guess, not a faneen interest in movies and read several books leaning and listingof, in our o officials to know what was going announcement so late. to so late, the fact that w got in a lifeboat be lowered appeared to us, as if t it't apd drive. and he said i'm iv to be lowere it wasting and we the b >> the lifeboat hadflying to one a certain amount of t swung around the other wa of the ship until we hit when eventually made it looking at that ship, turning t almost of angle was very everyone. people were eyewitnessed. the lifeboats, people. ut rather than doing it in clo rmally -- screaming believe tha women and children, should go first and ahead. it was like a . and then people were just cryin. so it was justnd unfortunately,. four hours prior. typically on a cruise it was our fire drill that day and we scheduled the disturbed to hear from a co t the hotel that we were had mond. the ship goes up people differe hey told us go through froe rect th we couldn't get on board, as well as when we were there os and the local people tremendously supportive. coffee cafe that opened up hisdrinks, extremely ki and the whole time that we were nine or ten us, very them.ing in some of te they were concerned abo concern about their ship home. they had no whatso tragic, i think. >> communication whatsoever fromfinish. and once we wer organization. ap people together, out names and who got ship and know -- >> ma you have anyone. >> no. >> but we must horrified that h these rockswell with we find thy question --on dollar ship. they musuipment. we have a small bogps. if youn failing, then whatsight? somethinhere. >> and what have the authorities, have ship? how have helping you? rome. have they promise d saying to ? >> we the ship with and we hava paper bags.t the hotel and they were very kind ininter. but seemed as though other people who were brought to the hotel,he nationalities werethe go buy kept asking. i gave and our room number. few know, information the entire tim hotel from cosand, go on another soon? definitely not any time it depends. i have toin. i know that, happen on the his in the back of if i was on another cruise, it the so i really don'to that would b >> whatyou, nancy. >> i was goinould go. i think consider another cruise because unt with you until i s ship, i wouldn't know unl you? >> home is in york. >> have new thank god both of you areg god yourself and you'reportunity to. good luck on thanks very muching us. >> thank you. >> thank you. coming in from italy has justcrewmen and 25 individuals, 29 people, remaina costa concordia crashing threeay number was 16 e details.esota. that's coming of the investigate on the coast of italy.formation up nt, session. and let's get right to our joinings out were ourcontributor, alongth our republican colbert,. he on pac ads , america's ntry one mitt romney says he's>> friend. >> secret. as head of he bought companies, got rid of wh killer.s --people, my please, ripper." 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