BROKEN BLACK BOXES
Italian newspapers have also published photographs of the Costa Concordia apparently performing the "salute" close to other ports including Syracuse in Sicily and the island of Procida, which is near Naples and Schettino's hometown of Meta di Sorrento.
Schettino said the fatal maneuver of January 13 was originally intended to bring the ship half a mile from the shore, "but then we brought it to 0.28" (of a nautical mile), he said.
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Investigators have said the actual point of impact was much closer to the shore but establishing the exact sequence of events could be complicated by problems with the recording equipment used to track the ship's progress.
Schettino said the black box on board had been broken for two weeks and he had asked for it to be repaired, in vain.
In the hearing, Schettino insisted he had informed Costa's headquarters of the accident straight away and his line of conduct had been approved by the company's marine operations director throughout a series of phone conversations.
He acknowledged, however, not raising the alarm with the coastguard promptly and delaying the evacuation order.
"You can't evacuate people on lifeboats and then, if the ship doesn't sink, say it was a joke. I don't want to create panic and have people die for nothing," he said.
Costa says Schettino lied to the company and his own crew about the scale of the emergency.
Documents from his hearing with a judge say he had shown "incredible carelessness" and a "total inability to manage the successive phases of the emergency."
Taped conversations show ship's officers told coastguards who were alerted by passengers that the vessel had only had a power cut, even after those on board donned lifevests.
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