Italian court hears panicked call to Concordia captain from scared crew in flooded engine room

Francesco Schettino, the captain, arrives to attend the trial where he is accused of alleged manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia near the Tuscan island of Giglio in January 2012, in Grosseto, Central Italy, Monday, Nov. 11, 2013. Stefano Iannelli, crewman-in-training, testified Monday that Schettino jumped, shortly before he himself did, onto the roof of a lifeboat. Iannelli said he didn't see any passengers still aboard. However, hours after Schettino abandoned ship, helicopters rescued people from the capsized vessel. (AP Photo/Giacomo Aprili) (The Associated Press)

Stefano Iannelli, crewman-in-training, arrives to give his testimony in the trial where Francesco Schettino, the captain, is accused of alleged manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing the shipwreck of teh Costa Concordia near the Tuscan island of Giglio in January 2012, in Grosseto, Central Italy, Monday, Nov. 11, 2013. Iannelli testified Monday that Schettino jumped, shortly before he himself did, onto the roof of a lifeboat. Iannelli said he didn't see any passengers still aboard. However, hours after Schettino abandoned ship, helicopters rescued people from the capsized vessel. (AP Photo/Giacomo Aprili) (The Associated Press)

The Italian court trying the captain of the shipwrecked Concordia has heard how panicking crew in the rapidly flooding engine room tried repeatedly to convey to him how crippled the ship was after it collided with a reef off a Tuscan island.

The phone call between engine room crew and Captain Francesco Schettino up on the bridge was played aloud Tuesday at his trial in Tuscany on charges of manslaughter, causing the 2012 shipwreck and abandoning the vessel before all were evacuated. Thirty-people perished in the crash.

The call from an engine room official was logged at 10:09 p.m., or almost 25 minutes after the crash. Despite the crew's telling Schettino the hull had been gashed and water was rushing in, an evacuation wasn't ordered until much later.