Capsized Costa Concordia Is Finally Set to Leave Its Watery Grave

Table Of Content

• Costa Concordia: cruise ship lifting a success – as it happened
• Costa Concordia is successfully salvaged - in pictures
• The 50 best Hollywood books of all time
• The Costa Concordia Disaster: How Human Error Made It Worse
• Singapore Keeps Top "Maritime City" Status, and UAE Moves Up the Ranks
• Cruise Ship's Salvage A Wreck For Italian Island

Costa Concordia was declared a "constructive total loss" by the cruise line's insurer, and her salvage was "one of the biggest maritime salvage operations". On 16 September 2013, the parbuckle salvage of the ship began, and by the early hours of 17 September, the ship was set upright on her underwater cradle. In July 2014, the ship was refloated using sponsons (flotation tanks) welded to her sides, and was towed 320 kilometres (200 mi) to her home port of Genoa for scrapping, which was completed in July 2017. In the coming months the team carrying out the salvage operation – Titan Salvage from the United States and the Italian engineering company Micoperi – will have to examine quite how damaged the starboard side of the ship is in order to decide how to proceed.

Costa Concordia: cruise ship lifting a success – as it happened

Six months after one of the biggest passenger shipwrecks in recent history, relatives of the dead attended a memorial service Friday near the site of the disaster. Once the ship is upright, engineers hope to attach an equal number of tanks filled with water on the other side to balance the ship, anchor it and stabilize it during the winter months. The flat-keeled hull itself will be resting on a false seabed some 30 metres (100 feet) underwater. The operation, known in nautical parlance as parbuckling, was used on the USS Oklahoma in 1943 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Costa Concordia is successfully salvaged - in pictures

Now, the marooned hulk dominates the Giglio skyline and has become a sinister attraction of what some call disaster tourism — drawing hundreds of gawking tourists who snap away at the photo opportunity. Schettino faces multiple manslaughter charges as well as charges of causing the accident and abandoning ship. He was released this week from house arrest, and in his first TV interview, he blamed his junior officers.

The 50 best Hollywood books of all time

There are going to be substantial risks before the Costa Concordia is gone for good, however. As CNN writes, the ship's rotting hull could break off as it is jostled about, which would cause lengthy delays. "The worst case scenario is that the ship falls apart during the first six hours as it's raised off the platform -- or that it breaks up somewhere off the coast of Corsica, which is where the Mediterranean's currents are the strongest," CNN continues.

That includes ships operated by companies MSC Cruise ships and Costa, Fortune reported, some of which are docked near Rome's main port of Civitavecchia. Other positive passengers will be disembarked in Civitavecchia, a port that serves Rome, or in Palermo, Sicily, it added. Guardia Costiera reports a helicopter and airplane were immediately sent to the area when they received the reports. They are continuing to monitor the vessel’s progress and reported so far, no pollution has been reported. The 8,300 dwt vessel is registered in Liberia and was on a voyage from Istanbul, where she departed on April 19, to A Coruna, Spain where she was due on April 29. The vessel was built in 2009 and according to databases has been cited for several deficiencies on recent inspections.

The ship has been resting there since September, when engineers managed to right the ship in a spectacular 19-hour operation. NBC News correspondent Kelly Cobiella caught up with a group of survivors on TODAY Wednesday, a decade after they escaped a maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 32 people. The Italian cruise ship ran aground off the tiny Italian island of Giglio after striking an underground rock and capsizing.

Worker Seriously Injured in Accident at Fincantieri Shipyard in Italy - The Maritime Executive

Worker Seriously Injured in Accident at Fincantieri Shipyard in Italy.

Posted: Mon, 22 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

It was not until September 2013 that the 114,000-ton Concordia was finally righted. The 19-hour process involved specially built underwater platforms, cranes, and some 500 people. In July 2014 the Concordia—outfitted with a number of steel containers serving as flotation devices—was towed to Genoa, Italy, where it was dismantled for scrap. A later statement from the project engineers said the wreck was "resting safely" on six platforms that have been built 30 metres below sea level. It will remain there throughout the winter while the salvage operation continues.

The Italian Coast Guard is responding to a collision between two ships off the eastern coast of Sicily. Both vessels suffered some minor damage, including reports that the hull of a Peter Doehle-managed containership was holed. The 19-hour, highly complicated salvage operation had managed to completely rotate the ship, leaning it on an underwater platform built underneath, the engineers said. Engineers in Italy say they have successfully righted the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship after a marathon operation that lasted around 19 hours and proved a nailbiting wait for those involved in the world's most expensive salvage plan. Final preparations are under way to refloat and remove the Costa Concordia from the pristine waters off Giglio in what has been the largest and most expensive maritime salvage operation ever attempted.

Cruise Ship's Salvage A Wreck For Italian Island

Engineers used remote controls to guide a synchronized system of pulleys, counterweights and huge chains that were looped under the Concordia's carcass to delicately nudge the ship free from its rocky seabed. But after some 6,000 tons of force were applied — using a complex system of pulleys and counterweights — Girotto said "we saw the detachment" from the reef thanks to undersea cameras. Yet progress was much slower than predicted and the delicate operation to rotate the luxury liner from its capsized position to upright appeared likely to stretch into Tuesday, a senior official said. Air was pumped slowly into 30 tanks or "sponsons" attached to both sides of the 290-metre, 114,500-tonne Concordia to expel the water inside, raising it two metres (6.5 feet) off the artificial platform it has rested on since it was righted in September. Ananias and her family declined Costa’s initial $14,500 compensation offered to each passenger and sued Costa, a unit of U.S.-based Carnival Corp., to try to cover the cost of their medical bills and therapy for the post-traumatic stress they have suffered. But after eight years in the U.S. and then Italian court system, they lost their case.

This morning, though, the ship was successfully refloated, the Guardian reports. Environmentalists are relieved since the ship has been marring a marine sanctuary for more than two years, while local residents say they are looking forward to no longer having to see a giant wreck each time they look out to sea. Prosecutors blamed the delayed evacuation order and conflicting instructions given by crew for the chaos that ensued as passengers scrambled to get off the ship. The captain, Francesco Schettino, is serving a 16-year prison sentence for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before all the passengers and crew had evacuated. During this time, work also began to remove the vessel in what was the largest maritime salvage operation in history.

“This was an important, visible step,” Franco Gabrielli, head of Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, told reporters at 4 a.m., accompanied by applause from a few residents who had stayed up all night to follow the operation. ROME — Engineers started refloating the deformed hull of the cruise liner Costa Concordia on Monday, a crucial step before its removal from the Tuscan island where it ran aground 30 months ago, taking 32 lives. Islanders can't wait to see the ship's removal, but it's an enormous salvage operation. The Costa Concordia is two-and-a-half football fields long, says Nick Sloane, the senior salvage master for the project. "And we're dealing with 60,000 tons of weight, on rocks right on an exposed parts of island." It's in Europe's biggest marine sanctuary, with crystal-clear waters rich in flora and fauna.

It was the same church that sheltered many of the 4,200 passengers and crew members of the Costa Concordia on a cold night in January. A few dozen island residents gathered Monday on a breakwater to witness the operation. One woman walking her dog near the harbour sported a T-shirt with "Keep Calm and Watch the Parbuckling Project" written across it in English.

On the night of Friday, January 13, the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia, with more than 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members on board, struck a reef, keeled over, and partially sank off Isola del Giglio, Italy. Six people are now confirmed dead, including two French passengers and one Peruvian crew member, apparently after jumping into the chilly Mediterranean waters after the wreck. Fourteen more people still remain missing, as search and rescue teams continue their efforts to find survivors. The incident occurred only hours into the cruise, and passengers had not yet undergone any lifeboat drills -- that plus the severe list of the ship made evacuation chaotic and frightening. Captain Francesco Schettino has been arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. Gathered here are images of the Costa Concordia, as efforts are still underway to find the fourteen passengers that remain missing.