Rome ( CNN ) -- The captain of the Costa Concordia did not `` fall '' into a lifeboat after the ship hit rocks , as he contends , a crew member testified . Instead , Francesco Schettino `` jumped into the lifeboat , '' Stefano Iannelli said . Schettino is on trial in Grosseto on charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship after 32 people died in the shipwreck off the Tuscan island of Giglio on January 13 , 2012 . Iannelli , who was on the bridge when the ship hit the outcropping , testified that Schettino 's reaction was , `` What have I done ? ! '' As part of his defense for the abandoning ship charge , Schettino has maintained that by the time he left the crippled vessel , the inclination made it impossible to stay on the ship . He told the court at a hearing in October that the ship was literally falling on top of him and he fell into the lifeboat . The ship ended up lying on its side . INTERACTIVE : How ill-fated cruise liner was raised from Italian seabed . Iannelli , who followed Schettino off the ship , testified Monday that he did not see passengers when they left the vessel , even though more than 1,000 people were later rescued from the ship . In a taped conversation between the captain and the port authority in Livorno , the port authority ordered Schettino to `` get back on board '' while passengers were still being rescued from the other side of the ship . Schettino , who admits that he was in command when the ship veered off course and hit the rocks , also blames a malfunction of the ship 's watertight doors for making the situation worse . His defense lawyers say that created a new emergency after the initial accident . On Tuesday , the court heard testimony from Hugo Di Piazza , a technician who was working in the engine room when Schettino hit the rocks . The court heard a taped call from Di Piazza and the bridge in which he is heard saying that `` something '' had ripped a 70-meter ( 230-foot ) gash in the hull and warning that the engine rooms were flooding . `` A 10-foot jet of water hit my back , '' Di Piazza told the court . He said he then closed the watertight doors but the `` water infiltrated '' the seals . If the watertight doors had functioned , Schettino 's defense maintains , the ship would have stayed upright and afloat despite the fact that it had picked up an 80-ton boulder from the seabed . After losing power , the Costa Concordia glided past the port of Giglio and then made a 180-degree turn back toward the port before capsizing . Di Piazza said he narrowly escaped the flooded engine rooms . `` I opened other doors but the water kept rising , '' he told the court before describing how he and another technician escaped to the upper control platform and the engine room flooded . The court also heard an intercepted telephone conversation a week after the accident in which Di Piazza said that Schettino seemed oblivious to the gravity of the situation . `` He did n't understand the situation . We were idiots and he did n't give a damn if we died , '' Di Piazza said . After Tuesday 's testimony from crew members , the trial will resume next week with testimony from traumatized passengers who survived the incident . Schettino is expected to testify before the end of the year . Schettino argues that he is a hero who saved the lives of more than 4,000 people , not a villain whose negligence led to the deaths of 32 . In addition to blaming the watertight doors , the captain 's attorneys also say the ship would not have crashed had the helmsman turned it in the direction that Schettino told him to 13 seconds before impact . The helmsman , Jacob Rusli Bin , and four others were convicted in a plea deal in July for their role in the disaster . A Florence court is considering the validity of those plea bargain agreements .
Stefano Iannelli says Capt . Francesco Schettino said , `` What have I done '' The crew member says he saw no passengers on the ship when he , Schettino left . Engine room technician testifies that `` 10-foot jet of water hit my back ''