Costa Concordia disaster

The Costa Concordia left Civitavecchia at 19:33 local time (18:33 GMT). Automatic positioning data from Dutch firm QPS shows how the ship sails towards the island of Giglio - and what happens next.

QPS reconstruction of the Concordia's final minutes

Captain Francesco Schettino orders the ship to be steered close to the island of Giglio as a "salute". Nearing the island, the captain gives the helmsman coordinates, followed by the warning "Otherwise we go on the rocks".

Moments later, at 21:45, the Costa Concordia hits a rocky outcrop.

The ship is holed on the left-hand side, starts taking on water and begins to tilt. Engine rooms are flooded and power is lost.

Costa Concordia crew member tells coastguard "we have a blackout"

Positioning data shows the Costa Concordia turn back towards the island's port soon after 22:00. It seems the ship then begins to list in the opposite direction, possibly caused by water in the damaged hull rushing to the far side during the turn.

The frantic conversations between the captain and his crew that follow the impact are recorded by the black box voice recorder. But it seems the captain is reluctant to tell the coastguard the extent of the damage.

At 21:51 the captain is told by the engine room chief that the ship has taken on water and cannot go on.

But at 22:12, when the coastguard calls the ship to say passengers are reporting problems to the local police, the captain replies: "We have a blackout and we are checking the conditions on board."

At 22:25 the captain gives orders to tell the coastguard that they have had a "failure" and need help from tug boats. The radio operator does this and adds that all the passengers have been given life jackets, none are injured and there is a gash in the left side of the ship.

At 22:36 passengers are told to go to muster stations and await instructions. The captain finally gives the order to abandon ship at at 22:51.

Most passengers escaped in lifeboats, but evacuation efforts were hampered by the angle of the tilting ship. The coastguard launch boats and helicopters to carry stranded passengers to safety.

The captain is reported to have left the ship in a lifeboat before all the passengers had been rescued. In another conversation, recorded at 00:42, a coastguard commander ordered the captain to get back on board. He did not, and went ashore.

The rescue continued over the weekend, with the ship's safety officer, Marrico Giampietroni, being discovered and evacuated with a broken leg at 12:00 on Sunday. A South Korean couple were also rescued.

A recording was released in which the coastguard ordered Captain Schettino to 'get back on board'

Captain Francesco Schettino, now under arrest on suspicion of manslaughter, said the rocks were not marked on maps and were not detected by navigation systems. He later admitted making a navigational error, and told investigators he had "ordered the turn too late" as the ship sailed close to the island.

The ship's owners, Costa Cruises, said the captain had made an "unapproved, unauthorised" deviation in course, sailing too close to the island in order to show the ship to locals.

Crash investigation

Automatic tracking systems show the route of the Costa Concordia until it ran aground on 13 January. Data from 14 August last year shows the ship followed a similar course close to the shoreline, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence. On 6 January this year, it passed through the same strait but sailed much further from the island.

Investigators have recovered the "black box" system similar to those used by aircraft, that record voices on the bridge, as well as radar position and other data, which they hope will explain how the incident happened.

Divers searched the ship as it rested on the seabed in about 20m of water. The operation had to be suspended a number of times as the ship shifted position. The sea floor eventually drops to about 100m.

Before salvage work could begin to refloat or remove the Costa Concordia, 2,400 tonnes of fuel had to be extracted from its tanks.

The Dutch salvage firm Smit brought a barge alongside the ship and divers installed external tanks to collect the diesel. More than 2,200 tonnes of fuel was eventually extracted, but the engineers were unable to remove all the oil from some of the most inaccessible tanks.

The decision to salvage the ship, rather than break it up, was taken in May, four months after the ship ran aground. It is being described as unprecedented operation - never before has such a big cruise ship been raised to an upright position.

Originally scheduled for refloating in January 2013, the operation to right the ship is not now expected to be complete until spring.