Giglio, Italy (CNN) -- Rescuers resumed work aboard of the wreck of the cruise liner Costa Concordia on Thursday, the Italian navy said, as a decision loomed about when and if to call off the search for survivors.
Authorities are considering when to change the operation from rescue to recovery, Coast Guard spokesman Cosimo Nicastro said Thursday.
At least 11 people are known to have been killed since the disaster, and about two dozen are still missing.
Declaring the operation to be recovery rather than rescue would allow salvage experts to start pumping fuel out of the ship, potentially averting an environmental catastrophe.
The ship was carrying about 2,300 tons of fuel when it hit rocks off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio on Friday night.
Rescuers will try to blow more holes in the side of the ship with explosives to allow greater access to the ship if weather allows on Thursday, Nicastro said.
The brother-in-law of the captain who has been arrested over the shipwreck defended him in an Italian newspaper Thursday.
Capt. Francesco Schettino "managed to avoid a tragedy -- it could have been worse," Maurilio Russo said in Corrierre della Sera.
And he denied that he captain had abandoned ship.
"He was not running away, he came down [from the ship] to survey the damage," Russo said.
Russo also said the route the captain took was not out of the ordinary.
''It is a usual procedure, the owners are well aware of it, it is useless to pretend otherwise," he said. "Passengers pay to see something and skirting very close to the shore is part of the show."
Schettino's parish priest Don Gennaro Starita accused the media of "killing him" in an interview with with Italian newspaper.
"It's a shame," he said. "Already there are all these dead people, do we want to add another one to the list?"
The priest said he he plans to visit the captain in the next couple of days "to express solidarity."
Schettino may face charges including manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning a ship when passengers were still on board, according to legal papers.
Prosecutor Francesco Verusio has accused the captain of piloting the ship too fast to allow him to react to dangers, causing the shipwreck, according to legal papers.
Judge Valeria Montesarchio's initial ruling found Schettino changed the ship's course, steering too close to shore and causing the ship to hit a rock.
The judge said the captain admitted to making a mistake and that, at the time of the collision, he was navigating by sight.
In her preliminary investigation, Montesarchio said there appears to be considerable evidence against the captain, whom she said showed "imprudence and inexperience."
The judge's findings included: Schettino made no serious attempt to return to the ship, he underestimated the damage to the Concordia and he failed to alert authorities in a timely manner.
"The captain could not but realize right away the gravity of the situation both because of the tilt and because he was alerted by the crew of the water influx," Montesarchio said.
The captain abandoned ship while at least 100 people were still on board, the judge said.
Montesarchio described the shipwreck as "a disaster of global proportion."
Officials named one of the victims Wednesday as Sandor Feher, a Hungarian member of the crew.
His body was one of five recovered Tuesday.
The mayor's office in Grosseto, the provincial capital, said 26 people remained missing, but that number may include some of the five victims found Tuesday.
The family of two missing Americans, Gerald and Barbara Heil of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, said it was thankful for perilous attempts to find those still unaccounted for.
"While it is certainly hard for us to see the recovery efforts stall due to the unstable conditions ... we are also very concerned for the safety of the Italian coast guard as they continue to put forth a heroic effort in trying to find those who remain missing," relatives wrote.
Experts say chances of finding survivors are slim.
"I think you have to look at several issues. One is just the hypothermia. If a compartment is flooded, even if there was air, at this point, most of them would have succumbed to the hypothermic problem of the water temperature," said Butch Hendrick, president of the diving safety company Lifeguard Systems.
Costa Serena, sister ship of the Concordia, sailed by the wreckage Wednesday night, safely navigating the waters around the island of Giglio.
Royal Caribbean International Capt. William Wright, speaking on behalf of Cruise Lines International Association, an industry group, said crews must use available technologies, including radar and GPS systems, and compare readings to nautical charts.
Looking out the bridge window is an aid to navigation, Wright said, but "that should absolutely by no means be your primary sense of position referencing."
The shipping industry newspaper Lloyd's List reported that Friday was not the first time the Costa Concordia steamed extremely close to shore near Giglio.
Satellite tracking data obtained by the paper show that the ship passed within 230 meters (755 feet) of the coast of the island at least once before, even closer than the location where the Costa Concordia hit the rocks lasted weekend.
The pass happened on August 14, 2011, Lloyd's List reported.
Costa Cruises chairman Pier Luigi Foschi earlier this week said a pass near the island last summer occurred only once, on August 9-10, 2011. The discrepancy in the dates could not be reconciled late Wednesday.
The pass occurred "under the authorization of the maritime authority, local maritime authority with the authority of the island aware, and with the permission of Costa, after having reviewed the route that the captain intended to take nearby the island," Foschi said, adding the vessel was observing San Lorenzo, known as night of the shooting stars.
The executive said the pass was not to be within 500 meters of the island.
Foschi on Monday placed the blame for the wreck squarely on the captain, saying it was his choice to deviate from frequently traveled routes.
"We believe it has been a human error here," Foschi said. "The captain did not follow the authorized route, which is used by Costa ships very frequently. There's probably more than 100 times in one year we have this route."
Schettino was arrested after leaving the ship while dozens were still aboard, panicked and fighting for lifeboats.
There were roughly 4,200 people on the Costa Concordia when it ran aground -- about 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members, the vast majority of whom made it off the ship safely.
Kevin Rebello, whose brother Russel was a member of the crew, refused to give up hope. His brother was last seen helping passengers into lifeboats Friday night.
"Miracles do happen and let's keep hope," Kevin Rebello said. "I'm not here to lose hope."
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