Italian civil defense chief Franco Gabrielli announced today to the media that the Costa Concordia sunken cruise ship will be delivered to the port for disposal in early summer.
“Today we can finally confirm when the ship will be towed - this will happen in June,” Gabrielli said. “We hope that by March we will determine our destination,” he added, later noting that the agency has already received 12 requests from different ports, ready to take a cruise ship that has sunk off the coast of Italy. The list includes five Italian and seven foreign companies. Nevertheless, as noted by the head of civil defense, preference will be given to the Italian port. So far, special attention has been paid to the ports of Piombino, Palermo, Genova, Genova and Civitavecchia.
The famous cruise ship Costa Concordia found on reefs near the island of Giglio (Giglio) off the coast of Tuscany (Toscana) January 13, 2012. At the time of the crash, more than four thousand passengers, including the crew of the ship, were on board the 290-meter ship. After Costa Concordia collided with the reef, the liner began to sink, and by the morning of the next day it was halfway under water. A terrible tragedy claimed the lives of 32 people, and also sent the ship’s personnel to the dock, in particular its captain, Francesco Scettino, who was allegedly to blame for the shipwreck.
Initially, Skettino assured that his ship was found on a reef that was not on the map, but later he admitted that he decided to get as close to the island as possible in order to greet the former captain of the ship.
Experts claim that the liner was at an unacceptably close distance to Giglio.
As a result of the investigation, it became clear that Skettino began evacuating the ship an hour later, did not inform the local coast guard about the ship's wreck, and soon he was one of the first to leave the sinking ship. During the hearing, Skettino assured that he was in the lifeboat by accident: he just fell into it. At the moment, litigation is still ongoing regarding the non-performance of captain Costa Concordia. According to lawyers, Skettino faces up to 2697 years in prison.
In April 2013, it became known that the Italian authorities decided to carry out the lifting and evacuation of the sunken cruise ship. A tender was announced, which was won by one of the American companies, and in June work began on the dismantling of the ship.
Only in September last year was Italian engineers carried out a specially planned operation to raise the Costa Concordia.
The vessel was brought upright and put on a keel. At this stage, it is planned to attach special containers to the liner, in which all the water will be pumped out before the Costa Concordia sets off on its last trip to one of the Italian ports.
