Secret phone recordings have revealed that the disgraced captain of the Costa Concordia jumped ship when the cruiser ran aground off the Italian coast, contradicting his official version of events.
Italian police taped phone calls Francesco Schettino made soon after the ship ran aground off the Tuscan coast on 14 January.
In a call made on the same day, the skipper told a friend: "When I realised that the ship was listing, I left and got off it", adding that he went back to take his radio, checked that the ship was settling in the middle of the rocks and then left.
He later declared the reason he left the stricken liner was because he "slipped on a lifeboat".
The secret recordings also reveal that Schettino claims it was Costa Cruises that encouraged him to sail close to the island of Giglio, and that he acted professionally throughout.
"Management was always saying 'pass by there, pass by there'. Someone else in my position might not have been so amenable to pass so close but they busted my balls, pass by there, pass by there, and now I'm paying for it."
Costa Cruises has consistently denied that Schettino had any authorisation to sail so close to the island, and that in fact the Captain was veering from the prescribed route.
Previous colleague and fellow captain Mario Palombo has claimed he was a "show off" and drove the cruise ship like it was "a Ferrari".
However these phone calls, transcribed in Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, and made just hours after his arrest contradict previous reports of the events leading up to the crash.
He claims that the rocks did not show up on his electronic navigational equipment and the map he was using also didn't show the reef. His lawyers are claiming that Costa Cruises encouraged captains to sail close to the island because it was good publicity for the company, and gave the passengers a different experience.
Although Schettino admits that getting off the boat may have been a mistake, he says that he was proud to have saved lives.
In an almost flippant tone, he is reported to have said: "What I feel most proud about is that we saved everyone, well, except, those guys (the victims)."
"I did what could be defined as an 'imprudence'. Everything that happened after we hit the rock I did it with utmost professionalism."
He tells his friend that he feels he did his duty: "I went to save people from the sea and I feel very calm about that."
However at the end of the conversation Schettino comments: "I don't want to sail a ship anymore. I want to change my life."
His lawyer Bruno Leporatti declared: "The information gathered from the various conversations Schettino had are compatible with what he has declared so far."
Francesco Compagna and Pietro Ilardi, two lawyers who are representing some of the passengers, declared that Captain Francesco Schettino should not be held solely accountable for the tragedy.
"When confronted with such a disaster, we don't think that everything can be blamed on a moment of madness by the Captain. We need to clarify the procedures which were followed to save the lives of 4000 passengers. We need to verify why a ship like the Concordia has been entrusted to someone so unsuitable."