Stricken cruise liner captain DID abandon ship 'half an hour before passengers' AND refused to go back when ordered

[The Hero]

• Francesco Schettino to appear before judge today
• Arrested on suspicion of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship
• Ignored order from coastguard to return to ship
• 'Offered to return to doomed cruise liner, but only to collect black box'
• 'Seen wrapped in a blanket on way to shore' 30 minutes before order to evacuate was given
  
• Seventh person was found dead in shipwrecked vessel, rescuers say this morning
  
• 35 Britons on board reported safe and well, more than 60 people injured, 29 still missing
  
• Reports Schettino was dining with passengers when the accident happened

The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, Francesco Schettino, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter

The Costa Concordia's captain did abandon ship 'half an hour' before hundreds of his passengers, it emerged this morning via a transcript of a conversation between him and the local coastguard.

Francesco Schettino, who will be questioned today by investigating magistrate Valeria Montesarchio, lied to the Captain of the Port of Livorno's Coastguard when asked how many people were on board the sinking liner, Italian media reported today.

He initially replied '40', when there were actually hundreds still at risk, and when further questioned admitted he was not even there.

He then ignored an order to go back onto the sinking ship - with some reports suggesting he volunteered to return, but only to pick up the black box.

Il Fatto Quotidiano published the transcripts of the conversation which purportedly took place on Friday night.

The first call to the boat took place at 9.49pm, where the coastguard asked what the situation was. The boat had run aground some 30 minutes before.

They did not speak again until 0.42am, just 40 minutes after the evacuation started, when Schettino was asked how many people were on board.
He replied '40'. The coastguard, surprised, asked how there were so few people left on board, and Schettino replied: 'I'm not on board because we have abandoned the ship.'

The coastguard asked him to return to the ship to co-ordinate the evacuation.

At 1.46am, Schettino received another call. The speaker said: 'You will return to the boat immediately. You have to tell me how many passengers are left.'

Confusingly, the captain replied: 'I'm on board, but I'm here.' The coastguard, who Italian media says understood he had no intention of returning, issued an ultimatum.

He said: 'Captain, this is an order. I am in charge now. There are dead bodies.'
The publication of the transcript comes as Schettino was labelled the 'most hated man in Italy'.
The 52-year-old, who lives with wife Fabiola and their 15-year-old daughter at a £175,000 apartment in the small seaside town of Meta di Sorrento near Naples, is at the centre of a Facebook hate campaign after being squarely blamed for the cruise liner running aground.
Thousands have taken to the web to vent their fury at the so-called Captain Coward, who it is now claimed skimmed past the Tuscan isle of Giglio not just to salute a retired officer but also to impress his head waiters family on shore.
Many scorned his decision not to remain with his stricken ship. The official death toll rose to seven this morning after another body was pulled from the tilting wreckage. Last night the number of those still unaccounted for rose to 29 25 passengers and four crew.
Schettino, who faces up to 12 years in jail for manslaughter, will appear in court today after his company chiefs accused him of an unauthorised and unapproved decision to sail so close to the eastern side of the island of Giglio.
The £400million liner, with 4,200 passengers and crew, was sailing just 300 yards from the islands rocky coast when it should have been at least four miles out to sea. It came to grief on Friday night after sustaining a 160ft gash in the port-side hull.
After swiftly escaping from the listing liner, Schettino the Concordias skipper for six years was arrested along with first officer Ciro Ambrosio.
The captain was spotted wrapped in a blanket on his way to the shore at around 11.30pm more than four hours before the evacuation of the vessel was completed - and breaking the maritime tradition of remaining with his ship.

Anger: Hundreds of people are signing up to a Facebook group to berate the captain of the ship Francesco Schettino

Boast: A relative of the ship's restaurant boss told her friends on Facebook how the boat would soon pass by, very close, to the island

One Italian report said he hailed a taxi and said to the driver: Get me as far away from here as possible.
Tuscan prosecutor Franco Verusio, who is leading the investigation, said: Captain Schettino was in command. He was the one who ordered that course to be taken, at least according to what we have discovered. There was someone in particular that wanted to be signalled from the ship.
Schettino gave the order for the doomed sail-by of the island as a salute of respect for former Costa commander Mario Palombo, whose parents are from Giglio, it is alleged.
The stunt as passengers were enjoying dinner at 9.30pm on Friday was apparently also a favour for the ships maître d Antonello Tievoli, who lives on the island.

Italian news reports said that that minutes before the Concordia crashed into an underwater reef just two hours into a seven-day Mediterranean cruise, Schettino told the head waiter: Come and look, we are passing over your Giglio.

After his rescue, Tievoli is understood to have joked: I never thought I would get dropped off at home.
His 82-year-old father Giuseppe said his son had phoned him before the accident to say the crew would salute him by blowing the ships whistle as they passed by.
He said: Antonello called and said that we should look out of the window at around 9.30pm because he would be on the ship and it would pass right by Giglio. All the ships do it but they never come that close I was at the window with my wife and, as he said, the ship went past.

Tievolis sister Patrizia, a teacher on the island, made a Facebook post 30 minutes before the disaster saying: Shortly, the Costa Concordia will pass really, really close, a big hello to my brother who will disembark at Savona and finally get to enjoy some holiday.
Tievoli, 46, has already been questioned by investigators while Palombo, who retired in 2006 because of ill health, is also expected to be interviewed.
But Palombo last night insisted the nautical bow was not meant for him as he was not on the island at the time. I have gone to the prosecutors office after I was dragged into all this. Ive been made to feel responsible.

Search and rescue: Underwater photographs show a diver searching the Costa Concordia, left, and a huge gaping hole in the vessel, right


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