The refloating of
Italy's ill-fated Costa Concordia cruise ship is set to begin Monday, with a
high-risk salvage operation to raise the rusting hulk ahead of its final
journey to the shipyard where it was built.
Two and a half
years after it sank off the island of Giglio in a nighttime disaster that left
32 people dead, the plan is to raise and tow away the 114,500-tonne vessel in
an unprecedented and delicate operation.
"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.
The 290-metre
(950-foot) ship was rotated upright in September and is now sitting on an
underwater platform.
Thirty tanks or
"sponsons" that have been welded to the sides will work as a
pneumatic system to raise it.
Under the gaze of
the world's media, the operation is expected to start on Monday with workers
pumping compressed air into the sponsons to lift the Concordia by two metres.
The environmental
committee overseeing the operation gave a preliminary go-ahead on Saturday but
said that final confirmation would come on Sunday, depending on the weather.
The operation is to
begin at 6:00 am (0400 GMT) on Monday.
In a worst-case
scenario, some environmentalists warn the hull could break apart and spill its
rotting innards into what is one of Europe's largest marine sanctuaries.
"We're talking
about a floating city kitted out for thousands of passengers, with gallons of
pollutants such as oils, detergents and sewage chemicals still inside,"
said Giorgia Monti from Greenpeace, which is sending an observation team to
monitor the operation.
After the initial
lift, tug boats would drag the wreck 30 metres (32 yards) east and secure it in
place before it is slowly buoyed another 10 metres, with engineers checking
each deck for fresh structural damage as they emerge.
All maritime
traffic in the area -- which includes a popular beach resort -- will be blocked
during the most delicate phases.
A team of experts
will manage the operation from a control room under the guidance of Sloane, who
has described the salvage as his "most challenging" yet in a career
that has taken him to six continents and two warzones.
- Journey fraught
with hazards -
Ship owner Costa
Crociere said on Saturday that the whole procedure is expected to take six or
seven days.
"The departure
of the Concordia from Giglio is currently scheduled for July 21," the
company said in a statement.
"It is a
complex operation never attempted before, but we know we can count on the best
technicians in the world," Costa Crociere's chief executive Michael Thamm
was quoted as saying.
Salvage operators
were expected to deliver a technical briefing on Giglio Island on Sunday but
they have already said the Concordia would be towed at two knots an hour some
240 kilometres (149 miles) north to the port of Genoa.
It is expected to
arrive later this month to be scrapped near the same shipyard it was built and
launched in 2006.
Salvage costs so
far are estimated at around 1.1 billion euros ($1.5 billion), including 100
million euros for the scrapping.
The luxury liner --
twice the size of the Titanic -- crashed into rocks just off tiny Giglio island
in January 2012 and keeled over with 4,229 people from 70 countries on board.
The ship's captain
Francesco Schettino is currently on trial for manslaughter, causing a
shipwreck, and abandoning the vessel before all of the passengers had been
evacuated.
Four other crew
members and a Costa Crociere executive have plea-bargained and the company has
accepted limited responsibility as Schettino's employer.
The body of one of
the victims, Indian waiter Russel Rebello, is still missing and his remains may
be found during the refloating or dismantling of the vessel.
The four-day
journey to Genoa is fraught with possible environmental hazards, with warnings
that some of the 100 tonnes of fuel and 263,000 cubic metres (69.5 million
gallons) of polluted water flooding its lower decks could leak out.
Costa Crociere
insists the amount of leakage will be comparable to that discharged by any
vessel crossing the area -- one of the most trafficked in the Mediterranean.
Source: global
post. 12 July 2014
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