Costa Concordia captain Schettino 'tripped and fell into lifeboat'
by: Staff writers From: The Daily Telegraph January 19, 2012 12:30PM 62 comments Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size Print Email Share 10 Italian ship tally - 11 dead, ... Timeline Costa passengers pushed and sh... Inside the capsized ship
Italian ship tally - 11 dead, 21 missingEleven passengers of the Costa Concordia have been confirmed dead after the ship slammed into a reef.(3:04 / 17.3MB) Please install the latest Flash player
Costa passengers pushed and shoved for lifeboatsMichelle Barraclough of Melbourne describes how she and her young daughter Katherine were pushed aside as people tried to cram onto lifebo...(1:46 / 9.9MB)
Inside the capsized shipRescuers release video filmed inside capsized ship, the Costa Concordia, in Italy.(1:49 / 10.6MB) 'Get back on the ship...that is an order' Pictures: See more of the sinking ship THE captain of the ill-fated Costa Concordia says he did not abandon the sinking ship, but instead tripped and fell into a lifeboat while helping passengers escape.
Italy rescuers say search suspended:Italy rescuers say their search has been suspended as the stricken cruise ship shifts.(1:41 / 9.4MB) Italian newspaper La Republica reported Francesco Schettino - vilified for leaving the ship without concern for his passengers and crew - told investigators he had not planned on leaving the ship as it began to pitch sideways after striking rocks just 150m from Giglio island on the Tuscany coast.
"The passengers were pouring onto the decks, taking the lifeboats by assault," La Republica reports him as saying.
"I didn't even have a life jacket because I had given it to one of the passengers. I was trying to get people to get into the boats in an orderly fashion.
Italian cruise liner runs aground Costa Concordia's coward 'Titanic song played as cruise ship sank' 'Get back on the ship ... that is an order' Costa passengers pushed and shoved for lifeboats New images show ship's ghostly interior
"Suddenly, since the ship was at a 60 to 70 degree angle, I tripped and I ended up in one of the boats. That's how I found myself there."
Mr Schettino appeared before a judge yesterday where he was questioned for three hours.
In an extraordinary claim, Mr Schettino argued he was responsible for "saving hundreds, if not thousands, of lives" by steering the crippled ship closer to shore after it struck rock.
Jailed since the incident on Friday, Mr Schettino appeared before the judge in Grosseto and was later ordered to be held under house arrest.
His lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, said Mr Schettino, 52, had returned to live with his wife and daughter at his home near Naples after being released by the court on strict conditions.
Criminal charges including manslaughter and abandoning ship were expected to be filed by prosecutors in coming days.
Mr Schettino faces 12 years in prison for the abandoning-ship charge alone.
Francesco Schettino, right, the captain of the luxury cruiser Costa Concordia, is taken into custody. Picture: AP Photo/Giacomo Aprili He is accused of causing the disaster by making an unauthorised manoeuvre from the ship's programmed course - apparently so he could perform a salute of respect for a retired officer as well as to impress his head waiter's family on shore.
At yesterday's hearing, Mr Leporatti said the captain gave his version of events, insisting that after the initial crash into the reefs he had manoeuvred the ship close to shore in a way that "saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives".
The lawyer said urine and hair samples had been taken from Mr Schettino to determine if he had consumed alcohol or used drugs before the accident.
Mr Schettino's conditional release came a day after a transcript of conversations between him and a senior coast guard officer after the accident were made public.
The transcript showed Mr Schettino resisted orders to return to his ship to direct the evacuation, saying it was too dark and the ship was tipping perilously.
The audio of the conversation was broadcast throughout the day on Italian television to a stunned nation.
The first of a series of increasingly desperate telephone exchanges between the coast guard and Mr Schettino happened only nine minutes after the luxury liner carrying 4200 passengers hit an underwater reef.
Even though it had suffered a fatal gash in its port-side hull, Mr Schettino - a Concordia ship's captain for six years - tells a worried harbourmaster that everything is fine other than just a small technical problem.
When officials again managed to contact the captain, who by now was safely on shore despite hundreds of passengers still being on board, he said he was unable to return because the cruise liner had started to list badly.
Instead of obeying the orders, Mr Schettino was reportedly seen getting into a taxi and leaving the scene as passengers were left to fend for themselves.
The death toll from the accident rose to 11 yesterday, with the bodies of five adults - four men and a woman aged in their 50s or 60s - recovered by rescuers from the bowels of the ship.
They were each wearing orange vests that passengers use, indicating they were not crew members, said a coast guard spokesman, Commander Filippo Marini.
They were discovered after Italian naval divers exploded holes in the hull of the grounded cruise ship, trying to speed up the search for the missing.
Navy spokesman Alessandro Busonero said the holes would help divers enter the wreck more easily.
"We are rushing against time," he said.
Before the grim finding, authorities had said 25 passengers and four crew members were missing.
They include two Americans, 14 Germans, six Italians, four French, a Hungarian, an Indian and a Peruvian. A total of 22 people are still unaccounted for.
A German listed as missing was traced yesterday.
'Titanic' theme song was playing
Meanwhile, in another bizarre revelation, a survivors has claimed the theme song from the movie Titanic was playing on board the cruise ship when disaster struck.
Celine Dion’s hit My Heart Will Go On, famously used in the 1997 James Cameron film, was reportedly playing in one of the ship’s restaurants at the time.
Yannic Sgaga, from Switzerland, told newspaper La Tribune de Geneve he was listening to the song while dining with his brother when the ship crashed into rocks and started to keel over.
"Images from the film Titanic are more realistic than one might imagine," Mr Sgaga said. "They kept coming into my head."
