Wrecked Concordia finally headed for scrapyard after massive salvage operation

GIGLIO ISLAND Italy - Maneouvres began early on Wednesday to remove the rusty hulk of the Costa Concordia cruise liner from the Italian island where it struck rocks and capsized two years ago, killing 32 people.

A convoy of 14 vessels, led by the tug boat Blizzard, will start to tow the Concordia later on Wednesday to a port near Genoa in northern Italy where it is due to arrive on Sunday, before being broken up for scrap.

The once-gleaming white luxury liner sank off the holiday island of Giglio in January 2012 after sailing too close to shore. Its wreck has remained there ever since as engineers embarked on one of the largest maritime salvage operations in history.

Over the past week, salvagers have slowly lifted the 114,500-tonne ship from underwater platforms by pumping air into 30 large metal boxes, or sponsons, attached to the hull.
Franco Porcellachia, engineer in charge of the salvage, said on Tuesday that his team had done everything in their power to make sure the ship, which is around two-and-a-half times the size of the Titanic, was structurally sound.

"When we are in sight of the port of Genoa, we can declare victory," said Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection service, on Wednesday.

The whole salvage operation is set to cost the ship's owners Costa Crociere, a unit of Carnival Corp over 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion), its chief executive said earlier this month....................http://www.todayonline.com/world/wrecked-concordia-finally-headed-scrapyard-after-massive-salvage-operation?singlepage=true
23/7/14
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• Τουριστική... ατραξιόν το Costa Concordia

• Costa Concordia wreck floats for first time. The Costa Concordia was rotated upright in September (video 17-9-13)

• Costa Concordia salvage operation begins. - LIVE STREAM RT./ VIDEO 17-9-13: The Costa Concordia has been rotated.

Costa Concordia wreck floats for first time. The Costa Concordia was rotated upright in September (video 17-9-13)

Huge 115,000 tonne cruise ship is brought to surface in the biggest salvage operation in history...

A salvage operation has successfully raised the wreck of the ill-fated Costa Concordia is set to begin more than two years after it sank off the Italian island of Giglio.

The high-risk operation on Monday raised the rusting hulk of the 114,500-tonne vessel, which will now begin its final journey to the shipyard where it was built.


The operation to salvage the 290-metre long ship's wreck was unprecedented in its scale.
"The ship is upright and is not listing either longitudinally or latitudinally. This is extremely positive," said Franco Porcellacchia, the engineer in charge of the salvage, the Reuters news agency reported.

"The most critical phase will be the first day, raising the wreck for the first time. Refloating a passenger ship this large has never been attempted before," South African Nick Sloane, who is in charge of the salvage, told AFP news agency before Monday's successful attempt.

The Costa Concordia was rotated upright in September and was sitting on an underwater platform..............................http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/07/costa-concordia-wreck-be-fully-raised-201471454732969467.html
14/7/14
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• Costa Concordia salvage operation begins. - LIVE STREAM RT./ VIDEO 17-9-13: The Costa Concordia has been rotated.

Costa Concordia salvage operation begins. - LIVE STREAM RT./ VIDEO 17-9-13: The Costa Concordia has been rotated.

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One of the largest and most daunting salvage operations ever undertaken is under way with an attempt to pull the shipwrecked Costa Concordia upright.

The operation was delayed for three hours because of an overnight storm, but began at 09:00 local time (07:00 GMT).
Righting the cruise ship is expected to take up to 12 hours.

Engineers have never tried to lift such a huge ship so close to land. Thirty-two people died when it hit rocks.
A senior engineering official says the Costa Concordia still has not broken free of the rocks on which she is lying, the BBC's Alan Johnston reports from the scene.
The bodies of two of the dead, a passenger and a crew member, have never been recovered and may be found during the operation.
The Italian Civil Protection Authority said the sea and weather conditions had mostly been right for the attempt. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24104741
16/9/13
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 VIDEO: The Costa Concordia has been rotated.Engineers in Italy have succeeded in setting the cruise ship Costa Concordia upright, 20 months after it ran aground off the island of Giglio.

Fabio Gabrielli from the Italian Civil Protection Authority said that the unprecedented salvage effort "reached degree zero, which was our target".