By Debbie Emery - Breaking Celebrity News Reporter

With the finger of blame in the cruise ship disaster pointing at the Costa Concordia's captain, the man who when it went down claims that he "tripped" into the lifeboat that took him to safety.

"I had no intention of escaping," said Francesco Schettino as he revealed the scenario that lead him stumbling to survival while at least 11 people died, reported ABCNews.com.

"I was helping some passengers put the life boat to sea. At a certain point the mechanism for lowering it, blocked. We had to force it. Suddenly the system unblocked itself and I tripped and I found myself inside the life boat with a number of passengers," Schettino claimed.

As Breaking Celebrity News previously reported, five days after the cruise ship capsized off the Tuscany coast, officials suspended ongoing rescue operations Wednesday as the ship continued to shift, endangering the divers and firefighters searching for the 22 people still missing, including an American couple from Minnesota.

In Tuesday's court hearing, Schettino argued that once the lifeboat hit the water it was impossible to get back on to the ship to save the passengers at peril.

While he claims he didn't intend to abandon ship, the 52-year old reportedly admitted