ROME - The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship was quoted as saying he tripped and fell into the water from the listing vessel and never intended to abandon his passengers.
New audio of Capt. Francesco Schettino's communications with the coast guard during the crisis emerged Wednesday.
"I did not abandon a ship with 100 people on board, the ship suddenly listed and we were thrown into the water," Schettino said, according to a transcript published Wednesday in the Corriere della Sera paper.
Initial audio of Schettino's conversations made headlines Tuesday, showing an increasingly exasperated coast guard officer ordering Schettino back on board to direct the evacuation, and the captain resisting, saying it was too dark and the ship was tipping.
Eleven people have been confirmed dead so far, and 21 are missing. Italian officials have released 27 names so far, including two Americans, 12 Germans, six Italians, four French, and one person each from Hungary, India and Peru.
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Meanwhile, the search for the missing ground to a halt after the cruise liner shifted again on its rocky perch off the Tuscan island of Giglio, making it too dangerous for divers to continue. The bad weather also postponed the start of the weekslong operation to extract the half-million gallons of fuel on board the vessel.
The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into a reef and capsized Friday after the captain made an unauthorized diversion from his programmed route.
The ship's operator, Crociere Costa SpA, has accused Schettino of causing the wreck by making the unapproved detour, and the captain has acknowledged carrying out what he called a "tourist navigation" that brought the ship closer to Giglio.
Costa has said such a navigational "flyby" was done in Aug. 9-10 after being approved by the company and Giglio port authorities.
