After landing unevenly on an underwater ledge, it partly sunk, but Schettino quickly fled the scene in a lifeboat he subsequently claimed to have “fallen” into, so he didn’t stay to see the damage.
When he was captain of the Costa Concordia, he undoubtedly committed a number of disastrous errors.
Despite assertions that this was the cause of the disaster, Schettino says that getting sidetracked by a young Moldovan dancer was not one of them. In court, Domnica Cemortan,
His putative girlfriend and then 24 years old, admitted to having an affair with the captain. Prosecutors said that he drove too near the island to brag to Cemortan, according to the BBC.
However, the dancer said that since she was standing “very far” away from Schettino at the time of the collision, she could not have diverted his attention, according to the Daily Mail.
