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Captain Francesco Schettino (born 14 November 1960) is a former Italian sea captain, who was captain of the Costa Concordia in 2006, when it had been recently launched, and then again in 2012, when Costa Concordia struck a reef and capsized. He was responsible for the ship's disaster, which caused 33 deaths (32 passengers and 1 salvage member) and 64 non-fatal injuries. In 2015 he was sentenced to sixteen years in prison.
The disaster edit
Captain Schettino stated that, before approaching the island, he had turned off the alarm system for the ship's Computer navigation system "I was navigating by sight, because I knew those seabeds well. I had done the move three, four times."He told investigators that he saw waves breaking on the reef and turned abruptly, swinging the side of the hull into the reef. "I have to take responsibility for the fact that I made a judgment error." "This time I ordered the turn too late."The captain had initially stated that the ship had
been about 300 metres (980 ft) from the shore (about the length of the vessel) and hit an uncharted rock.However, the ship's first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, told investigators that Schettino had left his reading glasses in his cabin and repeatedly asked Ambrosio to check the radar for him.
According to investigators, Captain Schettino left the ship by around 23:30. In one telephone call from to Schettino, Captain Gregorio Maria De Falco repeatedly ordered Schettino to return to the ship from his lifeboat and take charge of the ongoing passenger evacuation. At one point in the call, De Falco grew so angry at Schettino's stalling that he screamed, "Vada a bordo, cazzo!" translated as "Get the fuck [back] on board!", "Get [back] on board, for fuck's sake!" or "Get on board, damn it!" depending on the source). One of these calls took place at 01:46