The captain of the crippled Italian cruise ship’s decision to flee as it was sinking and refusal to return and control the chaotic situation has been exposed in an audio tape.
Tell me why you are not going… What do you want to do Schettino?… Go home?… It’s dark so you want to go home?… Get on board for _ _ _ _ _ sake?…- What the port official told the captain
Captain Francesco Schettino was heard making excuses as an Italian coast guard officer repeatedly told him to take charge of the passenger evacuation.
Prosecutors have accused Capt Schettino, 52, of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship before all passengers were evacuated for the grounding of the Costa Concordia off Italy on Friday night.
The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 people when it hit a reef off the Tuscan island of Giglio after Capt Schettino made an unauthorised deviation from the cruise ship’s programmed course.
Another five bodies were located today, raising the confirmed death toll to 11. Before the latest find, 29 people had been unaccounted for.
Capt Schettino has insisted he stayed aboard until the ship was evacuated but the recording of his conversation with Italian Coast Guard Captain Gregorio De Falco indicates he fled before all passengers were off – and then resisted Capt De Falco’s repeated orders to return.
“You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear?” Captain De Falco shouted in the audio tape.
Capt. Schettino resisted, saying the ship was tipping and that it was dark. At the time, he was in a lifeboat and said he was co-ordinating the rescue from there.
Capt De Falco shouted back: “And so what? You want to 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,” Capt De Falco shouted.Capt Schettino was finally heard agreeing to reboard. It is unclear whether he did.
The captain yesterday denied leaving the ship. Questioned at length by Italian prosecutors, he said his actions as the boat was going down near the picturesque Tuscan island of Giglio had saved many lives.
“The captain defended his role on the direction of the ship after the collision, which in the captain’s opinion saved hundreds if not thousands of lives,” his lawyer Bruno Leporatti said. “The captain specified that he did not abandon ship.”
But according to investigators, the flooded engine rooms would have made it impossible for Capt Schettino to navigate the 114,500 tonne ship, which drifted closer to the tiny port on Giglio before capsizing.
A judge last night denied bail to Capt Schettino, who was arrested along with his first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, on Saturday. He was placed under house arrest.
Yesterday, the Italian navy used explosives to blow seven holes in the upturned hull of the Costa Concordia, finding five more bodies. About two dozen people are still missing.
“The five victims are a woman and four men, who could be passengers but we are not sure, they are between 50 and 60 years old,” said coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini. He said the victims had been wearing life jackets when found.
Earlier, officials had said that 12 Germans, six Italians, four French, two Americans, one Hungarian, one Indian and one Peruvian were still unaccounted for. There were also reports of a missing five-year-old Italian girl.
The dead identified so far include two French passengers, an Italian and a Spaniard and one Peruvian crew member.
About 4,200 people were on board when the ship went down shortly after it had left a port near Rome at the start of a seven-day Mediterranean cruise, and survivors have spoken of scenes of chaos, confusion and panic on board.
The Italian press reported yesterday that as the vessel began to keel over, the crew initiated the evacuation procedure themselves – 15 minutes before Capt Schettino eventually gave the command.
But in his meeting with prosecutors, “the captain explained his behaviour, his decision, his choices during that phase of emergency”, his lawyer told reporters outside the court in the provincial capital Grossetto. “There is no need for him to be in detention,” he added.
Asked what caused the disaster, Dr Leporatti replied: “He found a rock along his route.”
Capt Schettino has been widely criticised after reports emerged that he ordered an unauthorised sail-by close to the island, which was not on the cruise’s itinerary, to please a local crew member.