Costa Concordia captain Schettino 'ordered crew to lie to coastguards'

London, Mar 4(ANI): Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino reportedly ordered his crew to lie to coastguards, telling them that that everything was fine.

"He ordered us to say everything was under control," The Guardian quoted the sunken ship's first officer Ciro Ambrosio, as saying.

He added that Schettino was not wearing glasses on the night of the incident.

"He had forgotten them. He asked me a number of times to adjust the scale of the radar because he couldn't see it well," Ambrosio said.

Investigators have also learnt that Mario Palombo, a former officer at cruise ship operator Costa Cruises, who mentored Schettino, had earlier warned that Schettino's pride often led him to tell a lie.

Costa Concordia passengers also recounted their tales of trauma at a preliminary hearing into the causes of the cruise ship disaster.

"Schettino was an imbecile, a criminal. But I'd like to know if the company delayed abandoning ship in order to try to make it into port to avoid the compensation triggered by using lifeboats," said a retired teacher Francesca Scarramuzzi.

A lawyer representing Costa Cruises denied the firm had told Schettino not to abandon ship despite 17 calls between the captain and company official Roberto Ferrarini in the hour after the collision.

"That is impossible. Schettino was the only one able to make the decision to abandon ship by law and company policy," Alessandro Carella said.

Apart from Schettino, eight other ship's officers and Costa executives are under investigation for the ship's sinking off the Tuscan coast on January 13 that killed about 30 people. (ANI)