The saga of the liner Costa Concordia veered from tragedy to farce Wednesday when her cowardly captain explained that he never meant to abandon ship — he merely tripped and fell into a lifeboat.
“The passengers were crowding the decks, storming the boats,” Capt. Francesco Schettino told a closed-door inquest, according to La Repubblica newspaper.
“I didn’t even have a life jacket because I gave it to one of the passengers. I was trying to get them into the boats in orderly fashion. Suddenly, because the ship was tilted 60-70 degrees, I stumbled and ended up in one of the lifeboats. That’s why I was there,” he said.