An Alaskan family is among the survivors of a cruise ship that wrecked in Italy.

The Costa Concordia struck a reef Friday night. The ship's captain claimed the reef wasn't marked on his chart, but maritime officials and local fisherman say that's not possible because the rocks in the area are all well charted.

Today the CEO of the cruise company, Pier Luigi Foschi blamed the captain for the accident saying, "The captain did not followed the authorized route, which is used by Costa ships very frequently."

The Lukes family from Girdwood, parents Nathan and Cary and their four children, were aboard when the accident happened.

Cary Lukes says they knew they had to find a way out, so they grabbed a few things. The couple's youngest children were still in their pajamas. They were able to make it to a lifeboat station, but all of those boats were already gone.

"People were panicking and yelling and pushing and they wanted to be the first on the lifeboat. We didn't get on the first lifeboats and they were gone and there we stood," says Nathan Lukes.

The family then had to climb down a rope ladder on the side of the ship to another lifeboat station.

"We hopped in and there's other people coming down the ladder and they cut us loose and we're gone. Those people are hanging one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet in the air. That was scary," says Cary Lukes.

The Lukes family made it safely to the shore in Italy.

At least six people died and 16 are still missing, including an American couple.

The captain of the Costa Concordia could face charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship.

He's scheduled to appear in court tomorrow.