Topic: Concordia Captain speak's out- ‘he tripped and fell into lifeboat’

According to the Telegraph Captain Francesco Schettino, said the reason he was in a lifeboat rather than help thousands of passengers evacuate was because he "tripped" and fell into the rescue craft.

During three hours of interrogation yesterday he told magistrates in Grosseto “The passengers were pouring onto the decks, taking the lifeboats by assault. 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 to 70 degree angle, I tripped and I ended up in one of the boats. That’s how I found myself there.”

He said he got stuck in the lifeboat for an hour before it was lowered into the water off the coast of Giglio island.

According to La Repubblica the second in command Dimitri Christidis and third officer Silvia Coronica were also with him.

“Suspended there, I was unable to lower the boat into the sea, because the space was blocked by other boats in the water.

The captain confirmed that he took the cruise liner close to Giglio’s rocky coast in order to give a ‘salute’ to an old colleague, a former Costa Cruises captain named Mario Palombo.

“It’s true that the salute was for Commodore Mario Palombo, with whom I was on the telephone. The route was decided as we left Civitavecchia but I made a mistake on the approach. I was navigating by sight because I knew the depths well and I had done this manoeuvre three or four times. But this time I ordered the turn too late and I ended up in water that was too shallow.

“I don’t know why it happened, I was a victim of my instincts.”

The Captain has been accused by officers for skippering Costa Concordia "like a Ferrari" driver. Martino Pellegrino said "If I had to make a comparison, we got the impression that he would drive a bus like a Ferrari,"
The family members feel he has been unfairly subjected to “mud-slinging”, Giulia Schettino the Captain’s sister said "My brother will demonstrate that he had no responsibility for what happened,"

Capt Schettino arrived at his home near Sorrento, south of Naples, in the early hours of Wednesday, after being released from prison and placed under house arrest.

Oh really, he just tripped!!!
Well he could have tripped back again.

Seriously, this guy needs to be charged with manslaughter.

So we have the Captain & the 2nd & 3rd officer all in the same! lifeboat for over a hour before they where lowered to the sea, So who the was in charge of the ship in this time.

very convenient isn't it? Both himself and the second in charge both fell in!! Something that happens to us quite a lot!

This has all the makings of a Jerome K Jerome story.

There are many conflicting stories of what the captain is supposed to have done and said. They cannot all be true!

It is not as clear cut as we may have first though:

BBC News - Costa Concordia: Ship's previous close pass of Giglio[/QUOTE]

The conversation between the Captain and the Coastguard was chilling to listen to. People have said you can't blame Costa for the accident, but they should never have promoted this spineless coward to a position of responsibility.

It certainly does.
According to all I've read today, the theme tune to Titanic was playing as the ship struck the rock, a granddaughter of a Titanic survivor was onboard, it was Friday the 13th, the captain struck the rock because he turned too late as he was navigating by sight in the dark, he then spent more than an hour on the phone to Head Office, had a chef make dinner and a drink for him and a beautiful companion, lied to authorities who had been alerted by passenger phone calls, fell off the ship into a lifeboat with his 2 senior officers, increasingly frustrated the senior coastguard, then took a taxi to buy a pair of dry socks. I'd say you couldn't make it up but some of it surely must have been.
All the while the captain seems to have been chillingly detached from his passengers.

QUOTE:

This has all the makings of a Jerome K Jerome story.

QUOTE:

So we have the Captain & the 2nd & 3rd officer all in the same! lifeboat for over a hour before they where lowered to the sea, So who the was in charge of the ship in this time.

So all three men tripped into the lifeboat?

Unbelieveable...................!!