"As assistant prosecutor Alessandro Leopizzi questioned Schettino, the captain described a scene of utter chaos on the bridge both before and after the accident.
At one point he explained how it was common to invite passengers and guests on the bridge, and said they often tipped him. "I said there couldn't be more than 12 people at a time," he said. "And they would bring 20, 30, 70 euro a tour."He acknowledged frequently conducting flyby activities -- deviating from the planned route to go closer to certain places -- with his cruise ship. "It was favorable from a commercial aspect," he said.
When the prosecutor asked if he had ever done a flyby past Giglio before, he said he couldn't remember but might have passed close by."
"Pushed as to why he used his binoculars instead of relying on the radar, Schettino said, "It was my habit to take my binoculars and look first. Not that I didn't trust the radar, but it was how I did it."He was confident that the ship had enough room for the maneuver, he said.In an audiotape played over the radar from the bridge extracted from the ship's data recorder, Schettino told his helmsman to turn, "otherwise we go on the rocks."
Asked why he made that comment, he said he was being ironic. "A few minutes later, I was told the danger we were in."
"Schettino has repeatedly presented a defiant face over the shipwreck.
He has pointed the finger at the Costa cruise company for not providing maps with the rocks he hit appropriately marked.
Schettino has also blamed the ship, saying generators did not work so the elevators did not function, which hindered some people's escape."http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/02/world/europe/italy-costa-concordia-trial/