A Moldovan dancer who had been on the bridge of the Costa Concordia cruise ship when it crashed into a reef off Italy electrified the captain's manslaughter trial Tuesday by testifying reluctantly that the two were lovers. 
 
 Domnica Cemortan, from Moldova, leaves the converted Teatro Moderno theater after testifying in a hearing in the trial of Captain Francesco Schettino, in Grosseto, Italy, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The Moldovan... (Associated Press) 
 
 Captain Francesco Schettino leaves after an audience of his trial at the converted Teatro Moderno theater, in Grosseto, Italy, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013. The captain of the wrecked Costa Concordia is charged... (Associated Press) 
 
 Domnica Cemortan, from Moldavia, leaves the converted Teatro Moderno theater after testifying in a hearing in the trial of Captain Francesco Schettino, in Grosseto, Italy, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. The... (Associated Press) 
 
 Domnica Cemortan, from Moldavia, left, arrives at the converted Teatro Moderno theater to testify in a hearing in the trial of Captain Francesco Schettino, in Grosseto, Italy, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013. The... (Associated Press) 
 
 Domnica Cemortan, 26, only made the admission after being warned by the judge that she risked criminal charges if she didn't answer the question. 
 
 The ship's former captain, Francesco Schettino, is the sole defendant on trial in the Tuscan town of Grosseto. He is charged with manslaughter for the 32 people who died in the crash, with causing the shipwreck on the night of Jan. 13, 2012, and with abandoning ship while many passengers and crew were still aboard. He risks 20 years in jail if convicted. 
 
 Earlier in the day, ship ma??tre d' Antonello Tievoli testified that 10 days before the crash, he had asked Schettino for a favor: Would the captain sail close to the island of Giglio during the Mediterranean cruise because the crewman's family lived there? 
 
 Heads in the courtroom turned Tuesday when Cemortan strode in wearing high-heeled pumps and a figure-hugging black top and skirt. She was questioned both by prosecutors and lawyers for the survivors who have attached civil suits to the manslaughter trial. 
 
 Testifying through a translator, Cemortan said she had worked on the Concordia for three weeks in December 2011. She then re-boarded the ship in January 2012 as a non-paying passenger several hours before the crash near Giglio. 
 
 "When you are someone's lover no one asks you for any explanations" about not having a ticket, she told the court. 
 
 Some in the courtroom gasped at the bold remark. Cemortan insisted her comment was a joke, but the judge made it part of the trial record. 
 
 As she testified, Schettino, who is married, sat at the defense table making a series of classic Italian hand gestures indicating incredulity. 
 
 Cemortan repeatedly declined to answer whether she is or had been romantically involved with Schettino, relenting only after Judge Giovanni Puliatti warned her that she risked criminal charges. 
 
 Tievoli, the maitre'd, said on Jan. 6, 2012, exactly a week before the collision, the cruise ship sailed closer than usual to Giglio and he thanked Schettino for the courtesy. Still, Tievoli recalled that Schettino was disappointed with that route and ordered his No. 2 officer to devise an even closer approach to the tiny island the following fateful week. 
 
 When the Concordia rammed into the reef the night of Jan. 13, gashing its hull and quickly taking on water, many of the passengers were enjoying a gala supper. Cemortan said she had dined at the captain's table with him, and he told crew to slow down the ship so he could have dessert before taking the helm near Giglio. 
 
 They both were on the bridge at the time of the crash. After it, Cemortan testified that she dashed into Schettino's private cabin to change out of her dinner outfit into more practical clothes. She noticed his laptop in the room and took it because she thought it was important. She said she gave it to him when she saw him on Giglio before dawn, after they both had taken separate lifeboats to the island. 
 
 Cemortan told the court Schettino told her immediately after the crash to take good care of a high-ranking crew member who is the brother of the former director-general of Costa Crociere SpA, the Italian cruise line. 
 
 She testified that the crew member, Ciro Onorato, pushed her onto a lifeboat. Because of the confusion and the darkness on the moonless night, she said she couldn't say if any passengers were still aboard the ship when she left the Concordia. 
 
 Hours after Schettino left aboard a lifeboat and was spotted on Giglio, Italian rescue helicopters plucked many survivors from the capsized ship. Many other passengers jumped into the sea to try to swim to Giglio and some drowned. 
 
 Cemortan said she and others aboard her lifeboat pulled several people out of the water. 
 
 Cemortan is among those seeking damages from the captain. 
 
 `'Today I died a second time," she told reporters outside the court, contending that she had suffered psychological trauma due to the shipwreck. 
 
 Last month, a spectacular maritime salvage operation righted the Concordia after 20 months of lying half-submerged on its side off the port of Giglio. The ship will eventually be towed away and broken up for scrap. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Domnica Cemortan testified at Francesco Schettino's trial, as Alan Johnston reports 
 
 A Moldovan dancer who was on the bridge of the Costa Concordia with Captain Francesco Schettino has admitted she was his lover at his trial. 
 
 Domnica Cemortan testified that she was in a romantic relationship with the captain and was with him when the cruise ship ran aground off the north-west Italian coast. 
 
 Capt Schettino faces multiple charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship. 
 
 The January 2012 tragedy killed 32 people. 
 
 The captain faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. 
 
 Ms Cemortan has been the subject of intense media interest, says the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome. On the night the Costa Concordia ran aground, she had dinner with the captain before he invited her to join him on the bridge as he oversaw what was meant to be a close sail-past of the little Tuscan island of Giglio. 
 
 Local press have speculated the captain may have been distracted by her presence, or even showing off. 
 
 In court, Ms Cemortan acknowledged after being pressed that they had been romantically involved. She had boarded the ship as a non-paying passenger hours before the crash, she said, adding: "When you are someone's lover, no-one asks you for a ticket." She subsequently dismissed the remark as a joke to her translator. 
 
 She said she had worked for the company that operated the Costa Concordia for about three weeks in December 2011, and had met Capt Schettino on a previous cruise. 
 
 Image caption Capt Francesco Schettino blamed his Indonesian helmsman for steering the ship onto rocks 
 
 After the ship hit the rocks, Ms Cemortan said the captain urged her to "save herself". 
 
 She told court that she helped other passengers to abandon ship before getting into a lifeboat herself. 
 
 Trial to take weeks 
 
 The court is expected to hear evidence from about 1,000 surviving passengers and crew during Capt Schettino's trial. 
 
 In testimony earlier in the day, ship maitre d' Antonello Tievoli told the court in Grossetto, Tuscany, that he had asked the captain if he could sail close to the island of Giglio because he has family there, the news agency AP reported. 
 
 The captain obliged on 6 January, but was apparently disappointed with the result, and ordered the ship's helmsman to plot a closer route for next time. 
 
 A week later, the ship ran aground on rocks after veering too close to the island, with 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew aboard. 
 
 The captain has acknowledged fault in the tragedy, but his defence team is arguing the ship sank in part because watertight doors did not function on the ship. 
 
 He also told the court in late September that his Indonesian helmsman was to blame for steering the ship onto rocks and ignoring orders to slow down. 
 
 Image caption The route of the Costa Concordia 
 
 However, an Italian naval expert told the trial these were not crucial factors and the crash would have happened anyway. 
 
 The helmsman, Jacob Rusli Bin, is one of five employees who were granted plea bargains in return for mild sentences in a separate proceeding. He was given a sentence of one year and eight months. 
 
 The 290m-long vessel was righted last month in one of the largest, most complex salvage operations ever that took 18 hours and followed months of stabilisation and preparation work by a team of 500 engineers and divers. 
 
 That operation allowed divers to retrieve the remains of one of the two people still missing in the disaster, believed to be an Italian passenger, Maria Grazia Trecarichi. An Indian waiter, Russel Rebello, is still unaccounted for. 
 
 Plans are now being made to attempt to remove the wreckage of the ship next year. 
 
 Image caption The Costa Concordia was righted in September 
 
 Correction 30 October 2013: We initially reported that the remains of Russel Rebello, not Maria Grazia Trecharichi, had been found, based on out-of-date information. ||||| World 
 
 Travel Incidents 
 
 The captain of a luxury cruise liner that capsized off Italy's coast may have steered the ship too close to shore so that its head waiter could salute his family in a pre-planned stunt that was posted on Facebook. 
 
 In a short period of time the Concordia ship will pass very close. A big greeting to my brother who finally gets to have a holiday on landing in Savona. 
 
 Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reports that just minutes before the Costa Concordia struck rocks and began taking on water, the head waiter's sister updated her Facebook status to say: "In a short period of time the Concordia ship will pass very close. A big greeting to my brother who finally gets to have a holiday on landing in Savona." 
 
 Disaster... The Costa Concordia lies on its side. Photo: Reuters 
 
 At least six people were killed in the accident, with 25 passengers and four crew members still missing amid growing fears that a fuel leak could cause an ecological disaster in the area. 
 
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 Captain Francesco Schettino, 52, reportedly invited the head waiter, Antonello Tievoli, on to the bridge as he steered the vessel towards the coast of Giglio on Friday night. 
 
 "Come and see, Antonello, we're right in front of Giglio," the captain told Mr Tievoli shortly before the crash, according to the newspaper. 
 
 'A greeting to my brother' ... A screen grab of Mr Tievoli's Facebook page, published on the Telegraph website. 
 
 It also quoted witnesses who claimed the waiter had warned Captain Schettino just before the accident, saying: "Careful, we are extremely close to the shore." 
 
 Captain Schettino may have performed the sail-past also as a salute to an old colleague, a former admiral from the cruise line, who was not even on Giglio on Friday night. 
 
 Claims have emerged that a similarly close "sail-past" last year prompted a mayor to send a congratulatory email to the captain for helping entertain the island's tourists. 
 
 First pictures ... A diver swims inside the wrecked cruise ship on a rescue mission. Photo: AP 
 
 Giglio mayor Sergio Ortelli said "Costa ships often pass close to the island". 
 
 "Tourists and locals gather on the jetty to see the ships go by. We light up the [stone tower built to spot pirate raids during mediaeval times]. It's a great sight," he said. 
 
 Costa Crociere, the Carnival line that runs the ship Costa Concordia, said early indications were that the captain had made "very serious judgments" and failed to follow company emergency procedures. 
 
 Underwater chaos ... A diver makes his way through floating pieces of furniture inside the cruise ship. Photo: AP 
 
 In a statement, the company said Captain Schettino, 52, sailed too close to the island off the Tuscan coast. "Preliminary indications" were that he had committed a "significant human error", the company said. 
 
 Captain Schettino is facing charges of multiple manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing a disaster, and has been taken into custody. He claims that the reef had not appeared on the nautical charts or the ship's navigation systems, and denies abandoning his passengers. 
 
 An Italian Facebook page set up for those wishing to vent their anger at Captain Schettino has attracted more than 1000 'likes' since it was established shortly after the tragedy. 
 
 Huge task ... A diver swims next to the cruise ship. Photo: AP 
 
 When the head waiter eventually reached land after evacuating the ship, he reportedly told friends and relatives on Giglio that he would "never have imagined that I'd end up disembarking on my own island like this". 
 
 The Corriere della Sera said Mr Tievoli was "tormented by a sense of guilt", even though he did not request the sail-past. 
 
 His 82-year-old father, Giuseppe Tievoli, who lives on Giglio, told the newspaper: "Antonello called me earlier to say the ship would be passing by the island at around 9.30 and they would come and give us a whistle to say hello. It was something they often did. 
 
 In deep ... Costa Concordia cruise liner captain Francesco Schettino. Photo: AFP 
 
 "The ship obviously came too close. I don't know if Antonello asked the captain to come near, but the responsibility is always and only the captain's. 
 
 "It was only coincidence my son was on board. He was supposed to have disembarked at Savona (on a cruise the week before), but the person who was supposed to replace him wasn't well, so he had to stay on board." 
 
 Hopes are fading of finding any more survivors on board the partially submerged 17-deck ship, which slipped on a rocky shelf under the sea overnight, sparking fears that the giant hulk could sink entirely. 
 
 Italian Environment Minister Corrado Clini warned that "urgent action" was needed as the wreck posed a serious risk to the area around Giglio, while that mayor said it was an "ecological timebomb" as there were 2380 tonnes of fuel on board. 
 
 Crews put down anti-spill booms as fears of a leak rose and local officials called for strict curbs in the future on shipping routes through the area of outstanding natural beauty.
– The trial of the captain who ran the Costa Concordia aground is under way, and the early testimony suggests that 32 people died because Francesco Schettino wanted to make good on a favor to a crew member and perhaps impress his lover at the same time. The two big developments: Crew member: Ship maitre'd Antonello Tievoli told the court that he asked the captain to sail close to the Tuscan island of Giglio because Tievoli had family there, reports AP. Schettino did so on Jan. 6 but didn't think he got close enough. He ordered his crew to make a closer pass the following week, and that's when the ship hit the rocks and sank. Lover testifies: Domnica Cemortan, a 26-year-old Moldovan dancer, confirmed to the court, reluctantly, that she was indeed Schettino's lover, reports the BBC. The two dined together before the crash, and she said the captain asked the crew to slow down so he could have dessert before taking the helm for the pass-by of Giglio. Cemortan accompanied him to the bridge and was with him when the ship crashed. She had two memorable quotes today: "When you are someone's lover, no one asks you for a ticket," and, outside court, "Today, I died a second time."