Rome ( CNN ) -- The captain of the Costa Concordia went back on board Thursday for the first time since the cruise liner crashed into the rocks off Italy 's Giglio island , killing 32 people . As part of his trial , Francesco Schettino , who faces multiple charges including manslaughter and abandoning ship , went aboard the vessel with an expert team appointed by the court and was present as a defendant . He denies any wrongdoing in the accident . Wearing sunglasses , Schettino toured the ship for four hours . Speaking to journalists afterward , he said he could not comment on the survey aboard the wreck . `` I have taken responsibilities for my actions and am undergoing a trial , '' he said . Schettino 's lawyers had asked the court to allow him to accompany the experts as they examined the ship 's emergency generators . They are also looking to see if anything other than human error could have contributed to the accident . Witnesses said Schettino jumped into a lifeboat to flee the ship , even though hundreds of passengers were still on board . In his trial , the captain said he fell into a lifeboat when the ship listed sharply . He also blamed a malfunction of the ship 's watertight doors for making the situation worse by letting in water after the rocks tore into the vessel 's hull . His 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 . Complex recovery . The wreckage of the cruise liner , now stabilized after a complex salvage operation last year , sits propped up on underwater platforms just outside the port of Giglio , off the Tuscan coast . It was carrying 4,200 people when it hit a reef January 13 , 2012 . Journalists and photographers swarmed Schettino as he arrived for a briefing on the island ahead of the tour of the ship . The raising of the Costa Concordia last September was one of the most complex shipwreck recoveries ever undertaken . In a lengthy process involving massive pulleys , cables and steel tanks , a salvage crew managed to roll the 114,00-ton vessel off the rocks . In an interview on Italian television last year , Schettino said he had felt pain over the victims ' deaths every day since the disaster . Testimony : Hundreds still on board as captain left Costa Concordia .
Captain boards the ship two days after it crashed off Italian coast . Francesco Schettino went aboard , with expert team investigating him . Schettino faces manslaughter charges after 32 people died in the tragic shipwreck . The wreckage of the cruise liner is now stabilized after a complex investigation .