Captain Says He "Tripped" Off Sinking Cruise Ship

UPDATE: Capt. Francesco Schettino has finally explained his astonishing decision to apparently abandon ship while the Costa Concordia took on water in a shipwreck that has left at least 11 dead: He tripped and fell into a lifeboat.

According to the Guardian, Schettino explained himself in a three-hour hearing Tuesday. Here is the quote:

"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. Suddenly, since the ship was at a 60-70° angle, I tripped and I ended up in one of the boats. That's how I found myself in the lifeboat."

Schettino also shed some light on the exact reason he deviated from the planned course and went to close to the island of Giglio. According to his statement at the hearing, he was on the phone with a retired captain, and went close to shore in order to salute him.

The search for survivors has been suspended again, the BBC reports, because the vessel began to move. Twenty-three people are still missing.

Tuesday, Jan. 17: Five more bodies were found Tuesday from the crippled Costa Concordia cruise ship, bringing the confirmed death toll to 11, according to local media accounts. Roughly two dozen people remain unaccounted for.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that a potentially damning audio recording has emerged in which the ship's captain, who faces manslaughter charges for his role in the accident, can be heard "making excuses as an Italian coast guard officer repeatedly ordered him to return and oversee the ship's chaotic evacuation."

Capt. Francesco Schettino has been accused of causing the shipwreck by deviating from the planned course and then abandoning his ship before all of his passengers had been evacuated, which are pretty much two cardinal sins as far as ship captains are concerned. He denies such allegations, but the recording appears to paint a starkly different picture, at least in regards to the latter charge.

Here's the AP with the audio play-by-play:

"You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear?" De Falco shouted in the audio tape.

Schettino resisted, saying the ship was tipping and that it was dark. At the time, he was in a lifeboat and said he was coordinating the rescue from there.

De Falco shouted back: "And so what? You want go home, Schettino? It is dark and you want to go home? Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are. Now!"

"You go aboard. It is an order. Don't make any more excuses. You have declared the abandoning of the ship, now I am in charge," De Falco shouted.

Schettino was finally heard agreeing to reboard. It is unclear whether he did.

Monday, Jan. 16: The search for the missing and dead aboard the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which ran aground off the coast of the tiny island of Giglio late Friday, has resumed after the passing of some bad weather.

Just before calling off the search due to dangerous conditions, rescue workers found one more body, bringing up the death toll to six. According to the BBC, about 15 people are still missing.

Meanwhile, investigators are trying to figure out why the Costa Concordia came so close to shore in the first place.

Costa Cruises, the owners of the ship, have now blamed the captain Francesco Schettino. He was arrested and accused of manslaughter and is being investigated for abandoning ship before all passengers had escaped. According to the New York Times, Costa denied that the accident was due to an error in the ship's computer or electrical systems: “This route was put in correctly. The fact that it left from this course is due solely to a maneuver by the commander that was unapproved, unauthorized and unknown to Costa,” they said in a press conference.

Sunday, January 15, 11:25 a.m.: Two more bodies were found aboard the Costa Concordia cruise ship Sunday, the Italian Coast Guard said, according to the Associated Press. The bodies of the two elderly people found in the liner's restaurant brings the total number of confirmed dead to five.  

Meanwhile, rescue workers continued to painstakingly search the cruise ship more than a day after it ran aground off the Italian coast. A South Korean couple on their honeymoon and an Italian crew member were rescued from the ship late Saturday or early Sunday morning. There is still widespread confusion about the number of people missing with some officials saying it was 17 but other estimates putting it at 34, reports Reuters. There was also variation with the number of people reported injured with some saying 30, and others reporting 70.

Francesco Schettino, the captain of the ship, was arrested and accused of manslaughter. In addition, authorities are investigating claims that he abandoned the liner before all the passengers had escaped, which is punishable with up to 12 years in prison, according to the Italian navigation code, reports the Associated Press. Schettino told Italian television he did not expect rocks to be in the area where the ship ran aground, reports the Telegraph.

Sunday, January 15, 11:05 a.m.: A luxurious dinner at the 1,500-cabin Costa Concordia turned into a nightmare after the Italian cruise ship ran aground, leading to a 160-foot gash in its hull, off the tiny island of Giglio, near Tuscany, late Friday. At least three people were killed after the ship tipped over, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,100 people.

An Italian official tells CNN that “at the moment from 43 to 51 people are missing,” adding that “these people could be still on the island of Giglio, in private houses or in hospitals.” Some officials said the passenger list may not have been up to date at the time of the accident. Although local media had reported as many as eight deaths, officials said they could only confirm three Saturday morning. Dozens were injured, reports Reuters.

Passengers described scenes of panic and horror, complaining of a lack of instructions from the crew on how to evacuate. Even though some had already been on the liner for days, the evacuation drill was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, so no one was quite sure what to do. It didn’t seem to help matters that the crew at first told passengers everything was fine even though it was clear the ship had hit something.

The Associated Press talks to several survivors who compared what they were forced to live to Titanic. The crew delayed lowering lifeboats, and many scared, desperate people jumped into the cold sea. Passengers described being forced to crawl through hallways and stairwells that were nearly vertical.

“We were crawling up a hallway, in the dark, with only the light from the life vest strobe flashing,” a 61-year-old survivor said. “We could hear plates and dishes crashing, people slamming against walls.” At one point, a couple handed her their 3-year-old daughter, whom she gave back after she lost her balance. “I thought that was the end and I thought they should be with their baby.”

Although investigators will now look at all aspects of the accident, a “key element” will be “the electrical systems,” writes the BBC’s Richard Westcott, who notes that “human error could also be a factor.”