Costa Concordia Removal Delayed
The refloating of the Costa Concordia has been delayed from June until July 18-20, Costa Crociere representatives said Monday.
International salvage consortium, Titan Micoperi, is attaching sponsons (floats) to the recently righted carcass of the huge cruise liner that hit a rock on Tuscany's Giglio Island in January 2012, sank and killed 32 people in Italy's worst postwar maritime disaster.
The sponsons must be filled with air to make the Concordia buoyant before it can be towed away for scrap in Italy, the Middle East or the Far East.
The salvage effort recently ran into trouble when one of the sponsons buckled after the giant ship was pulled upright, resulting in minor damage to an adjacent sponson – likely causing the month-long setback.
As of May 9th, the ‘faulty’ sponson was transported to Genoa for repairs.