Captain of the sunk Italian cruise ship Costa Condoria says it’s not his fault that he ended up in a lifeboat instead of going down with his ship because he fell into the life saving vessel.
Ship Captain Francesco Schettino, 52, tells Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspape:
“I had no intention of escaping.”
“I was helping some passengers put the life boat to sea. At a certain point the mechanism for lowering it, blocked. We had to force it. Suddenly the system unblocked itself and I tripped and I found myself inside the life boat with a number of passengers.”
The Captain then says that after he fell in the boat it was immediately lowered into the sea, stopping any chance for his return to the vessel.
The Captain’s account of the event doesn’t add up when you take into consideration a recorded conversation he had with a Port Authority officer:
“And with 100 people still on board, you abandon ship? [expletive].”
“Schettino appears to correct himself, saying, “I didn’t abandon any ship… because the ship turned on its side quickly and we were catapulted into the water.”
“The recording goes on to show the Port Authority official repeatedly berating Schettino for not going back to the ship to coordinate rescue efforts, and at one point ordering Schettino to “get back on board for [expletive]’s sake!”
Captain Francesco Schettino also admitted to the court that he lied about dropping anchor to stabilize the boat, a video clearly shows the anchor was not dropped as the Guardia di Finanza arrived on the scene 10 minutes after the accident occurred.
The investigation in the Captain’s actions that led to the crash and then afterwards are being investigated while at least 11 people have been found dead while nearly two dozen more are still missing.
Do you think the captain of the Costa Condoria is not coming clean about the entire accident?