Lawyer: Costa Concordia captain wasn't wearing his glasses on night of accident GROSSETO, Italy --The captain of the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner was not wearing his glasses on the evening of the accident and asked his first officer to check the radar for him, the officer's lawyer said on Saturday. The giant cruise liner capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio after hitting a rock on Jan. 13, killing at least 25 people. Seven people are still unaccounted for. Prosecutors have accused Captain Francesco Schettino of causing the disaster by bringing the multi-story Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, too close to the shore. The ship's first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, and seven other officers and executives of the ship's owner, Costa Cruises, are also under investigation. Ambrosio has told investigating magistrates that Schettino, 51, did not have his glasses on when he steered the massive ship within a stone's throw of shore in the dark of night to perform a maneuver called a "salute." Many of the passengers were having dinner at the time of impact. "That evening Schettino had left his reading glasses in the cabin and repeatedly asked Ambrosio to look at the radar to check the route," Ambrosio's lawyer Salvatore Catalano told Reuters, quoting his client's testimony to magistrates. Schettino has said that the rock hit by the cruise liner was not on his navigational charts. The captain has acknowledged that he brought the ship too close to the shore, but he says he was not the only one to blame for the tragedy. Catalano said his client was the only officer on the ship's bridge who went ahead and ordered the listing vessel to be evacuated before the captain made up his mind to do it himself. "He ordered the lifeboats to be put to sea from deck number four," Catalano said. Catalano was speaking in the Tuscan city of Grosseto, where a pre-trial hearing into the disaster took place on Saturday. None of those under investigation attended the hearing, which was held in a theater to accommodate hundreds of victims' relatives, survivors and lawyers for all sides. In order to fit everyone in one space the trial was held in the Modern Theater in the coastal town of Grosseto. The theater was expected to accommodate victims' relatives, survivors and lawyers for all sides, but was not open to the general public or media. "It's been too long already, it's been six weeks," he said. We are dead inside already; they have killed our kids so we are dead, too. During the hearing, the judge appointed various experts to analyze the data from the ship's black box. It could take as long as three months for them to present their findings, public prosecutor Francesco Verusio told Reuters. Captain, under house arrest, did not attend hearing Schettino is accused of a string of charges, including multiple manslaughter and abandoning the 114,500-ton liner before the evacuation of all passengers and crew. He is under arrest at his home in Meta di Sorrento, near Naples, and did not attend the hearing. Neither Schettino, nor his wife, Fabiola Russo, nor his brothers spoke to reporters who sought comments from them at his home on Saturday. His neighbors in the sleepy seaside town continued to defend him. "It's normal for accidents to happen at sea," Franco D'Elia, a former sailor, told Reuters. Accidents happen on solid ground, at sea, and in the sky. Others weren't as sympathetic to Schettino.