The owner of an Italian luxury cruise ship is blaming the captain of the vessel for the ship's sinking off the coast of an Italian island on Friday, local time.

Costa Cruises said in a statement that the sinking of the Costa Concordia was the result of the captain’s poor judgment.

The company also said the captain failed to follow the company’s emergency rules after the accident, saying the evacuation of passengers was delayed due to wrong initial responses.

The firm added it is cooperating in prosecutors’ investigation of the ships’ captain who was arrested on charges of manslaughter.