@Chris Scott - emphatic +1!
@Lyman:
Given the notorious flakiness of Italian media (and the Daily Mail's penchant for reprinting every bit of scuttlebutt it can find), I'm convinced the veracity of the claim is at best very dubious. Also, the Captain was not on the flight deck during the onset and initial response phases of the accident sequence - his return coincided with the point where recovery would have already been difficult, so logically it has no bearing on the most important timeframe.
Additionally, we know that while the PNF was on the same turnaround time as the Captain, the PF (who was effectively in command at the onset) had been on vacation for some time prior to the flight and was in effect on Rio de Janeiro time (IIRC his body clock would have been on roughly around midnight).