Rescue crews working on the cruise ship that capsized off the coast of Italy are running out of time to find any possible survivors. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.
By msnbc.com news services
Updated at 6:05 a.m. ET
GIGLIO, Italy -- The cruise ship grounded off Tuscany shifted again on its rocky perch, forcing the supension Friday of search and rescue operations for the 21 people still missing.
It was not clear if the movements registered overnight by onboard sensors were just vibrations as the Costa Concordia settles on the rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio or if the massive ocean liner is slipping off the reef.
"The ship is not in safe enough conditions for rescue operations to continue," Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro told The Associated Press.
The ship's movements are being carefully monitored since any significant shift could be dangerous for divers trying to locate those missing after the Concordia ran aground Jan. 13.
Published at 2:51 a.m. ET: Italian rescue workers suspended their search of the capsized cruise liner Costa Concordia after the ship moved again on Friday, an official said.
Firefighters' spokesman Luca Cari told Reuters that?authorities were?evaluating the situation. He said he could not say by how much the ship had moved.
The seas around the island of Giglio, where the ship capsized a week ago, were choppy on Friday and the weather was predicted to worsen in the course of the day.
The ship's sudden movement on the reef Wednesday had postponed the start of a weeks-long operation to extract the half-million gallons of fuel on board the vessel.
On Thursday, divers focused on an evacuation route on ship's fourth level, now about 60 feet below the water's surface, where five bodies were found earlier this week, Navy spokesman Alessandro Busonero told Sky TG 24.
Crews set off small explosions Thursday to blow holes into hard-to-reach areas for easier access by divers.
The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-marked rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Jan. 13 after the captain made an unauthorized diversion from his programmed route. The ship then keeled over on its side and is still half-submerged nearly a week later.
Meanwhile,?a young Moldovan woman who translated evacuation instructions from the bridge after the Costa Concordia ran into a reef emerged as a potential new witness in the investigation into the captain's actions on that fateful night.
'He saved over 3,000 lives'
Italian media have said prosecutors want to interview 25-year-old Dominica Cermotan, who had worked for Costa as a hostess fluent in several languages but was not on duty when she boarded the ship Jan. 13 in the Italian port of Civitavecchia.
In interviews with Moldovan media and on her own Facebook page, Cermotan said she was called up to the bridge of the Concordia after it struck the reef to translate evacuation instructions for Russian passengers. She defended Capt. Francesco Schettino, who has been vilified in the Italian media for leaving his ship before everyone was evacuated safely.
"He did a great thing, he saved over 3,000 lives," she told Moldova's Jurnal TV.
Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship, is under house arrest, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship.
Eleven people have been confirmed dead in the disaster and 21 others are still missing.
The ship's operator, Crociere Costa SpA, has accused Schettino of causing the wreck by making the unapproved detour and the captain has acknowledged carrying out what he called a "tourist navigation" that brought the ship closer to Giglio. The company had approved a similar maneuver in August.
However, Lloyd's List Intelligence, a leading maritime publication, says its tracking showed that the ship's August route actually took the Concordia slightly closer to Giglio than the course that caused the grounding last week.
Costa is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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