Cruise Ship Captain Under House Arrest as Damning Audio Emerges (VIDEO)

Italian coast guard officials ordered the captain of that crippled cruise ship to return to his vessel to handle its evacuation over the weekend but the captain refused, according to shocking audio made available today.

Prosecutors have charged Captain Francesco Schettino with manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, and abandoning his vessel before all passengers were evacuated during the grounding of the Costa Concordia cruise ship on Friday night.

After the captain was interrogated today, a judge ruled that he should be released from jail and confined to his home near Naples under house arrest, according to his lawyer, Bruno Leporatti.

The death toll from Friday’s accident rose to 11 when divers found the bodies of four men and one woman within the wreckage of the vessel.

The victims were in their 50s or 60s said Coast Guard spokesman, Filippo Marini.

Before those bodies were discovered, the coast guard had increased the number of missing to 25 passengers and four crew members.  Two Americans are among the missing.

The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 people when it struck a reef off the Tuscan island of Giglio after Schettino went slightly off-course as a favor to his chief waiter who hailed from the island.

Schettino had initially said that he remained on board the ship until it had been evacuated.  However, audio of his conversation with Italian Coast Guard Captain Gregorio De Falco would seem to indicate he fled the scene a bit prematurely and refused De Falco’s repeated orders to return to his vessel.

The captain could face up to 12 years in prison on the abandoning ship charge alone.

More in the video below.

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• Italian captain being placed under house arrest (newsok.com)
• More bodies recovered from stricken cruise ship (cnn.com)
• Did Ship’s Captain Abandon Ship? (thedailybeast.com)
• Coast Guard Scolds Costa Concordia Captain For Abandoning Ship [Video] (inquisitr.com)