The captain of the Costa Concordia did not accidentally fall into a lifeboat as he claimed but jumped into it long before the last passengers were rescued from the doomed cruise ship, one of his officers testified.
Capt. Francesco Schettino panicked after the giant vessel crashed in January 2012 into rocks off Tuscany, Stefano Iannelli said.
“He was saying ‘What have I done? I’m finished sailing,’ ” Iannelli, a cadet officer aboard the 950-foot-long ship, testified Monday.
As the ship began to turn on its side Iannelli and other crew members of an emergency team named Tango India “formed a human chain so as not to slip” and helped passengers evacuate, he said.
“Then when I couldn’t see any more passengers, together with Schettino and four others we went to where lifeboats were,” he told a court in Grosseto, Italy, where Schettino — a k a “Captain Coward” — is on trial for manslaughter for the tragedy that killed 32 passengers and crew.
“I jumped onto the roof” of the lifeboat, he said. “But Schettino was already there. He had jumped just before me.”
Schettino has claimed from the start that he just happened to accidentally “trip and fall” into the lifeboat that went to shore on the island of Giglio.
Italian media reported that later that night a Coast Guard officer called Schettino and ordered him to return to the ship to help evacuate the hundreds of trapped passengers. “Get the f - - k back on board!” Schettino was allegedly told.