Thirty massive tanks filled with air will lift the hulk of the Costa Concordia off the seabed in June so it can be towed away from the Italian island of Giglio where it capsized two years ago, officials said yesterday.
The 114,500-tonne vessel hit rocks on January 13, 2012, killing 32 people. It was hauled upright in a complex “parbuckling” operation in September but still rests where it capsized, just outside the holiday island’s small port.
The ship’s captain Francesco Schettino is on trial for manslaughter, causing the wreck and abandoning ship.
He says he was not the only person to blame for the disaster.
Refloating the Concordia will be one more phase in the largest maritime salvage in history. Where the ship will be dismantled – the final step – has yet to be decided.
“This incident is part of our DNA and our mission is to make sure that it never happens again,” Michael Thamm, chief executive of Costa Crociere, a unit of Carnival Corp that owns the liner, told reporters at a news conference.
“We are very confident we can remove the ship from the island within the month of June.”
The Concordia salvage is expected to be the most expensive wreck recovery ever, costing over €600 million.
Around two-and-a-half times the size of the Titanic, the Costa Concordia was typical of the latest generation of cruise liners, built to carry thousands of passengers and keep them entertained with restaurants, cinemas and bars.
Italian officials at the news conference confirmed June was the target date for towing away the ship, though the engineer in charge of the salvage efforts said a slight delay could not be ruled out, depending mostly on weather.
Where the ship will be dismantled will be decided by the end of February, said Franco Gabrielli, the man charged by the government with overseeing the salvage operations. Twelve companies are expected to bid for the dismantling contract, including ABLE UK based in northeast England.
Other interested companies are based in Italy, Norway, Turkey, France, China and the Netherlands, Thamm said.
Few ports in Europe have the necessary depth of 20 metres to take the vessel, said Franco Porcellacchia, the engineer in charge of the salvage.