Report: Black box of Costa ship had malfunctioned

ROME (AP) -- An Italian newspaper reports the data recorder aboard the Costa Concordia, the ship that capsized Jan. 13 off Tuscany, had been malfunctioning in the days before the grounding that left 32 people dead.

Corriere della Sera said investigators determined the "black box" stopped recording at 11:36 p.m., well before the ship was evacuated.

Costa officials insisted the equipment worked despite showing error messages. The newspaper cited emails from Costa' technical director to the maintenance firm showing the recorder had a history of problems and that plans were to have it repaired Jan. 14.

Corriere also reported that water-tight doors were left open and unauthorized maps were found in the bridge.

It's unclear what, if any, role the issues played in the grounding, which has been blamed on the captain.

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