Rome, Jan. 19 (AP): A young Moldovan woman who says she was with the captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship after it rammed into a Tuscan reef emerged as a potential new witness today in the investigation into the captain’s actions that night.

Crew members and passengers have said Captain Francesco Schettino ate dinner with a woman in the ship’s restaurant on Friday night, and Italian news reports have said prosecutors want to interview her. Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship before everyone was safely evacuated, is under house arrest.

Dominica Cermotan, a 25-year-old Moldovan hostess who said she was working for Costa on the Concordia, said on her Facebook page that she was not on duty the night of the grounding but was with Schettino, other officers and the cruise director on the bridge. She said she was called to help with translations of instructions for how the small number of Russian passengers should evacuate.

“We were looking for them, searching for them (the Russians),” she said in an interview with Moldova’s Jurnal TV. “We heard them all crying, shouting in all languages.”

She defended Schettino, saying “he did a great thing, he saved over 3,000 lives”, and added he stayed on deck until 11.50pm. The ship hit the reef at 9.45pm. Prosecutor Francesco Verusio declined to comment on whether he was seeking Cermotan as a witness.

Costa said in a statement that a woman embarked on the ship earlier on Friday in the port of Civitavecchia. Without providing her name, Costa said the woman was registered with the ship and that the company was prepared to provide both her identity and paperwork for the ticket.