. >> this is captain schettino. >> listen, schettino. there are people trapped on board. now, you have to go with your life boat and go under the boat stem on the straight side. there's a ladder there. get on board the ship and tell me, you tell me how many people there are. clear? i'm recording this conversation, capital yab schettino. >> i understand. listen, there are people coming down the stem ladder. you must take that ladder in the opt sit direction. get on board the ship and you tell me how many people there are and what they have. you tell me the there are children, women, people with special needs. and you tell me how many there are in each of this category. is that clear? look, schettino, you might have been saved from the sea, but i will make sure you go through a very rough time. i will make sure you go through a lot of trouble. get on board. >> i'm going now because there is the other motor boat that has stopped now. >> you go on board. it is an order. you cannot make any other violations. you have declared abandoning ship. now i'm in charge. you get on boar

she did not believe that captain schettino was a risk flight. or repeat the crime over charges that he's facing at least. so she thought that the house arrest here with his family was the most appropriate way of detaining him. that may change, however. because there is such outrage across many other parts of the world as well that this guy is just under house arrest. this appeal may be lodged and if successful he could be back behind bars within days. >> matthews, is there something that we're missing in this story? we certainly don't want to condemn someone before they are found guilty. but how is he explaining his own behavior, especially in light of the audiotapes that we heard, which really made him sound like he was just thinking about himself, that he had abandoned people and had missed his dessert or something. >> reporter: well, of course it's important to remember he's not even been charged with manslaughter or abandoning his ship or causing a ship wreck. those are the charges he faces should the investigation determine that there's eno

. >> there are already bodies, schettino. >> how many dead bodies are there? >> i don't know.w of one. i've heard of one. you are the one to tell me how many there. christ! >> so, obviously, a very frustrated coast guard there, talking to a captain who appeared a little detached and who had clearly, you know, at this point, appeared to kind of failed his passengers. later on in the transcripts that we've read and the recordings we've listened to, the captain says that he didn't sort of get off the ship, abandon it on purpose. he says that as the ship listed over to one side, he was catapulted off the bridge. so that may have been one explanation. it will be for the prosecutors, the investigators now looking at this to determine what actually happened, michael. >> and matthew, there has already been a court hearing and a ruling. tell us about that. and as we know, the italian judicial system is not known for its speed. >> no. and this could take many months before the full outcome of this investigation is known. but captain schettino, who commanded the "costa concordia," has be

schettino was essentially in a life boat. who knows if it was possible to get back on board. listen, if anything is clear at this point, prosecutors are livid with the notion that he is on house arrest right now. they've already announced that they're going to appeal this and suggest that he be jailed instead awaiting the charges. >> is there a law in italy that a captain has to stay on that ship until he or she knows that every passenger is safe? >> that's an awesome question because we all sort of harken back to titanic where we saw the captain valiantly going down with the ship. it's a thing of legend. while there is that charge of abandoning ship, there is no law that you have to go down with the ship. to your point, and you make a good one, you can't just leave when all those other people were in need. so that's something they're going to have to really assess. he certainly did say multiple times on that tape with port authority that he had abandoned ship. but then, kyra, he also called it catapulted. if you saw the angle of the ship like i did, i could easily see people

she defends her husband, francesco schettino, and she says he's a maestro that knows how to do his job, that he's being made into a scapegoat. >>> by the way, a 16th body has been recovered from the cruise ship. 17 are still missing. >>> a very emotional morning there on capitol hill today. congresswoman gabrielle giffords formally resigned from congress. she gave up her seat to focus on her recovery after being shot in her head at a rally in tucson just last year. her good friend and colleague, debbie wasserman schultz read her letter on the house floor. >> always i fought for what i thought was right, but never did i question the character of those with whom i disagreed. never did a pass up an opportunity to join hands with someone just because he or she held different ideals. >> also today a private funeral this afternoon for ledgendary penn state coach joe paterno. thousands stood in line yesterday just to file past his casket. a public service will be held tomorrow in a 16,000-seat arena on campus. the 85-year-old died two months after being accused of being involved in the scanda

it will stay in the united states because carnival owns the ship, is that number one, francesco schettinoe captain, on one hand says, well, i've fallen down and i can't get up and he fell right into a life boat, which is not very credible. secondly, they got him on tape saying i upped and left. and secondly, and i think more compelling, is that under maritime law, you're supposed to contact the coast guard immediately. costa which owns the boat, owns the ship and the captain admit that no one contacted the coast guard for 73 minutes. that's extremely compelling and it may be effective in getting around the kind of fine print that richard is talking about. >> avery, let me ask you, why file in state court in florida and not federal court, if the case eventually does come to the united states? what's the benefit to doing it in state court? >> mostly because it's easier. i frankly would have chosen a federal forum, but i understand that by trying to convince a state court judge to keep the case, based on this florida-based company, many of the procedures that are required in the federal cour

. >> i called him captain schettino, the captain that fled the ship in italy, that's our own president is fleeing the american people and not doing his job and running around the country and campaigning. >> and let's talk about the olympics straight ahead. the london games almost here. less than six months until the december games. opening ceremony, we'll talk about how london is getting ready to welcome the world. are they ready yet? let me give you a little quiz while we're waiting for those answers. which city in the world has hosted the summer games the most times? talking about the entire history of the olympic games. might it be paris, athens, london, or los angeles? think about it. think. and we'll be right back with an answer. >>> a minute ago, i asked you which city in the world hosted the summer olympic games the most. paris, athens, london or los angeles? which one did you guess? if you guessed london, then you would be right. it has had opening ceremonies twice already and then come this year, for the third time, july 27th to be exact is when the games will begin. london wi

there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship's master, captain francesco schettino, which resulted in these grave consequences. the captain is under arrest now. he could face charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship. but he is defending himself today and you will hear that in just a moment as well. sadly though, crews today found two elderly people dead near the ship's restaurant. life vests still strapped around their bodies. that brings the death toll inside the ship to five. rescuers did pull out a south korean couple who were trapped for more than 24 hours. they're newlyweds on perhaps the worst honeymoon of all time. 17 people are still unaccounted for according to the island's mayor. >>> the ship is tipped on its side almost halfway submerged with a gash in the hull that's longer than half a football field. dan rivers took a boat from the island out to the ship and gives us some of the closest images yet of the destruction. >> reporter: with an open gash running the length of her portside, the costa concordia looks like it's been gutted by a giant fisherman

that testimony from the trial of captain fran chessco schettino taking place in italy right now. >>> it's going to be another wet, snowy and cold day across the mid-atlantic and the northeast. the region getting slammed for a second straight day. jennifer grey is here now. she's in the cnn severe weather center to tell us more. hi, jennifer. >> hi. yeah, if you are trying to fly in or out of the northeast you're not going anywhere any time soon. a lot of delays because of the weather. new york, almost a five-hour delay right now as well as newark, laguardia, also jfk. we are delayed about an hour and 15 minutes there. but newark and laguardia, the main ones. of course, seeing delays in philly, chicago, charlotte, all across the northeast mainly and it's all due to this snow and low visibility. we have snow anywhere from d.c. to new york all the way up to boston. washington, you are on the back end of that, so it should be ending for you in the next couple hours. just a closer look, we're going to see anywhere from 1 to 2 inches of snow within the city. isolated amounts higher out

captain schettino's story appears human, all too human, it says. possibly a vein, glorious man who panicked at the one crucial moment of his career and who will now spend the rest of his life in a state of bitter remorse and regret. the captain still has a lot of very tough questions to answer. his friends and his family are defending him, but survivors and families of victims are absolutely furious as are so many people who are horrified learning of things today, for example, the details about having dinner after the ship struck rocks. kyra? >> zain verjee out of london, thanks. >>> stories happening cross-country now. just outside of reno, nevada, 10,000 people evacuated because of these wild fires including vice president joe biden who had to cut a speech short as the fire neared the building where he was. so far one person has been killed. firefighters have stopped the fire's progress, they say, and they're now fighting the hot spots. >>> in new brunswick, new jersey, the pretrial hearing for former rutgers student darren rabi gets underway tod

"costa concordia" ran aground off the coast of italy. 32 people died, captain frances francesco schettinor: captain execute tino is currently on trial. among the charges he's facing abandoning a ship with passengers still on board, manslaughter and causing maritime disaster. we did some checking and found there isn't an international maritime law that says that captains should stay on the ship. many countries have their own law. it doesn't require that a captain stay on board but it does say the captain is responsible for the vessel and his passengers. that same treaty also says passengers should be allowed to evacuate within 30 minutes. remember, the sewol ferry took more than two hours to sink off south korea, but the passengers were told to stay in place. a warning that may prove to have cost hundreds of lives. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >>> coming up in the "newsroom," growing fears north korea may be in the final stages of planning a nuclear test. why many experts are now sounding the alarm. [ female announcer ] crest presents: crest 3d white whitestrips vs. a whitening pen. i feel l