The Crown Princess cruise ship tilted 38 degrees during a steering malfunction near Port Canaveral -- which was reportedly five degrees from flipping over and sending passengers into the sea, according to a Local 6 News report.

The ship was about seven miles out of Port Canaveral Tuesday when it suddenly rolled heavily to its side. Official boarded the ship Wednesday to determine an official cause for the roll.

"We are told that the National Transportation Safety Board and the Coast Guard are on the scene and are investigating," Local 6 reporter Donald Forbes said. "We are also told that the ship listed or leaned about 38 degrees. In another five degrees, it would have actually flipped over."

Witnesses told investigators that people were holding onto the railing to keep from falling into the ocean.

"It made a sudden turn to the right and just started tilting, and it felt like it was not going to stop," a passenger told Local 6 News. "I mean, people were holding on for dear life. The children and people in the pool were washed out of the pool."

About 100 passengers were injured, including two who were transported in critical condition. A young girl had a fractured femur and was transported to Arnold Palmer Hospital.

"Terror and panic set in after the ship suddenly and without notice turned hard right and tilted 30 degrees, throwing everyone and everything that was not nailed down," Forbes said.

"I called my mother and said goodbye," a passenger told Forbes.

All 3,100 passengers and 1,200 crew members were accounted for, the Coast Guard said. A total of 94 were transported to hospitals, and at least 20 people suffered serious injuries, including a child and an adult with injuries considered critical, cruise line and port officials said.

All but three passengers and two crew members were released, Princess Cruises spokeswoman Julie Benson said Wednesday.

Details about the injuries of the five patients were not immediately available, but they were expected to make a full recovery, she said. About 240 passengers were treated onboard for minor injuries.

Some of the remaining passengers left the ship early Wednesday after it reached Port Canaveral, and buses shuttled others to an airport Wednesday morning. About 1,600 passengers had left as of late Wednesday morning, but officials expected the disembarking to continue into Thursday.

Payne said the ship would remain there for several days. The Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board planned to inspect it Wednesday, and Princess Cruises -- one of 12 brands operated by Miami-based Carnival Corp. -- said it was investigating what caused the severe list. It wasn't immediately clear how far over the ship tipped.

"We deeply regret this incident and are doing everything we can to make our passengers as comfortable as possible under these difficult circumstances," Benson said. She said all passengers would receive a full refund and reimbursement for additional expenses.

Some passengers said the ship was already tilting Tuesday morning, even before the sudden roll to the side.

Martha Lynn George said she at first thought something was wrong with her bed when she awoke but then realized the whole ship was slightly tilted. She and her husband were in the buffet area Tuesday afternoon when the ship suddenly rolled. If her husband hadn't grabbed her, she said, she would have gone flying through a glass window.

"We were seeing the sky -- the ship tilted that much," George told ABC's "Good Morning America" Wednesday. "I really thought this was it."

Caproni said he held the balcony tightly as the ship brought him nearly face to face with the ocean.

"I fell to the deck. I had to crawl to get back in my room," he said. "It was the most scary thing. We thought we were gone. We thought it was over."

The Crown Princess was on a nine-day Western Caribbean cruise and had just left Port Canaveral on Tuesday afternoon. It had been scheduled to return to New York on Thursday.

Martha Stewart christened the Crown Princess last month before it embarked on its maiden voyage to the Caribbean from its home terminal in Brooklyn.

"Ironically, the movie they were going to show (Wednesday) night was Titanic," Forbes said.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.