ROME — Lawyers for the captain of Italy's doomed cruise ship on Monday asked permission for experts to go aboard the wreckage of the Costa Concordia to see if technical problems contributed to the disaster.

"It is now possible to carry out an inspection on board the Concordia. Parts of the ship are now above water and work can begin," lawyer Francesco Pepe told Italian media outside a court in Grosseto, where the trial of captain Francesco Schettino resumed after a summer recess.

The ship was hoisted upright last week from its watery grave off Giglio island following the biggest-ever salvage operation of its kind, 20 months after it ran aground.

"We will only be able to ascertain the truth and understand what happened after a fresh inspection of apparatus such as the emergency generators, the watertight doors, and the lifeboat launches," Pepe said.

Schettino, dubbed "Italy's most hated man" by the tabloids, is accused of manslaughter and abandoning ship in the nighttime disaster which left 32 people dead.

The 52-year-old faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted.

The 290-meter (951-foot) Concordia crashed into rocks on the night of January 13, 2012 with 4,229 people from 70 countries on board.

Schettino, nicknamed "Captain Coward" for apparently heading ashore while terrified people were still trapped aboard, is accused of sailing too close to the island in a risky "drive-by" maneuver.

He insists ship owner Costa Crociere, Europe's biggest cruise operator, should take its share of the blame for deaths of the victims, some of whom were forced to jump into the freezing sea after a problem deploying lifeboats.

Costa lawyer Marco De Luca told journalists on Monday that the initial survey of the ship carried out by experts before the trial began "was exhaustive."