Schettino: “I would do it all again”

Genoa - “I stand by my decisions, with the benefit of hindsight it’s easy to do the right thing, I, however, deep down feel that I would repeat all the actions I took that night.” The only mistake? “Not to have died.” Words contained in the memoir of Costa Concordia’s skipper, Francesco Schettino (dismissed from duty and sentenced to 16 years in jail for manslaughter). There’s pity for the victims, there’s pain for not having been able to save them, but no remorse. Just the opposite. “I can’t stand how the misinformation from the initial hours of the accident has tampered with and covered up the truth.”

The fatal manoeuvre

Over 600 pages of statements, some already on record along with some new ones, as well as excerpts from documents, all to reconstruct what happened and to disprove most of what has emerged during the trial; the belief throughout is that he was chosen as sole scapegoat. “I believe the preferred solution was to focus all responsibility for the mishap on one individual, rather than on a team of officers....” On the night of 13 January, he arrives on the bridge at 21:34. First officer Ciro Ambrosio is on duty, and there are three other sailors, plus the helmsman. Schettino had previously ordered the ship to pass 0.5 miles offshore from Giglio Island, to perform a sail-past salute to humour the ship’s maître d’. But when, at 21:39, he takes over the command, uttering the phrase “I take the conn,” the ship is not where it should be. “In the quick handover, Ambrosio didn’t think to call my attention to the actual position of the ship in relation to its preset course.” The ‘Concordia’ is past the point it should have been turned. “None of the officers on the bridge, who were observing the radar, expressed doubts or concerns about the fact that the ship was heading straight for the rocks.” The commander, noticing the, “fluorescence of the foam,” on the reef around Scole, begins an evasive manoeuvre. His orders: “rudder to starboard 10°, 20°, all to starboard; to the centre; left 10°, 20°...” The helmsman confirmed properly my initial order for 20° to the left, but after reaching 2° to the left, he arbitrarily executes a wrong manoeuvre, placing the rudders 20° to starboard.” To the right and not to the left. This is the moment control of the ship was lost and the stern runs aground on the rocks.

Get back on board!

Schettino speaks of a “media massacre” and rails against the now-famous call placed by Commander Gregorio De Falco. “He believed and wanted everyone to believe that I had deliberately and prematurely jumped ship...” The heated, “get back on board!” conversation, at 01:46, had not been the only call on record. There had been two earlier ones: at 00:28 (initially with deputy Tosi) and at 00:42. And before that an exchange had taken place with the operations’ room of the Captaincy in Rome and the maritime authority in nearby Santo Stefano. By the course of their third exchange Schettino maintains that Commander De Falco, on duty at the operations room of the Livorno Captaincy, was already aware that the ship was tilted at a right angle, at starboard. “He completely lost his head, his tone of voice altered, dramatic, certainly not suitable to coordinate any rescue efforts....” He displayed an attitude, “accompanied by orders without any legal basis (“I am giving the orders now”), without any logic (“...you go back up there and you climb up that ladder the opposite way…” however, in the bow starboard side the ladder was already underwater, and even if he had reached the port side ladder, he would have prevented the ongoing evacuation of passengers). He was a victim, too, like me...”

“A hero, what a joke!”

According to sources in another book, “The voices of the Concordia”, written by Angela Cipriano and Guido Fiorini, the lawyer Patrizio Lepiane, responsible for the defense’s cross-examination of Commander De Falco’s testimony during the trial, believes that, “there was a secret deal between De Falco and the prosecutor’s office…” “At the start of the recording, in fact, one hears the Commander say, ‘I have to call the prosecutor, (expletive)!’... It was all done to provide the world’s public opinion with a perfect scapegoat.” What purpose would the recordings have, then? “To demonstrate abandonment of the ship, which never really took place.”