Coast-guard officer told captain to return to ship

Associated Press

ROME

“You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me?” the coast-guard officer shouted as the captain of the grounded Costa Concordia sat safe in a life raft and frantic passengers struggled to escape after the ship rammed into a reef off the Tuscan coast.

“It is an order. Don’t make any more excuses. You have declared ‘Abandon ship.’ Now I am in charge.”

The dramatic recording made public Tuesday shows Capt. Francesco Schettino resisted orders to return to his ship to direct the evacuation, saying it was too dark and the ship was tipping perilously.

The exchange came to light as the death toll nearly doubled to 11 after divers pulled the bodies of four men and a woman, all wearing life vests, from the wreckage. Some two dozen people remain missing.

The Costa Concordia had more than 4,200 passengers and crew on board when it slammed into the reef Friday off the tiny island of Giglio after Schettino made an unauthorized maneuver from the ship’s programmed course — apparently to show off the luxury liner to the island’s residents.

Schettino has insisted that he stayed aboard until the ship was evacuated. However, the recording of his conversation with Italian Coast Guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco makes clear he fled before all passengers were off — and then defied De Falco’s repeated orders to go back.

“Listen Schettino,” De Falco can be heard shouting in the audio tape. “There are people trapped on board. ... You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear?”

But Schettino resisted, saying the ship was listing and he was with his second-in-command in the lifeboat.

“I am here with the rescue boats. I am here. I am not going anywhere. I am here,” he said. “I am here to coordinate the rescue.”

“What are you coordinating there? Go on board! Coordinate the rescue from aboard the ship. Are you refusing?” came the response.

Schettino said he was not refusing, but he still did not return to the ship, saying at one point: “Do you realize it is dark and here we can’t see anything?”

Schettino was finally heard on the tape agreeing to reboard. But the Coast Guard has said he never went back, and police arrested him on land several hours later.

Jailed since the accident, Schettino appeared before a judge Tuesday and was ordered held under house arrest, his lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, told reporters.