ROME, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- A Dutch company has begun pumping about 500,000 gallons of fuel from the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship in Italy, officials said.
The company, Smit and Neri, will attempt to avoid any environmental hazard by removing the fuel and heavy oil prior to the ship being hauled away, the office of the commissioner in charge of emergency operations on the ship said Sunday. It will take 28 working days to empty the 15 fuel tanks if weather and sea conditions are good, AGI of Rome reported.
Once the fuel tanks are empty, the Costa Concordia, which crashed into rocks near the island of Giglio on Jan. 13, will be re-floated and hauled away whole instead of being cut for scrap, The Daily Telegraph of Britain reported.
The official death toll from the accident is 17, but 15 people remain missing and are presumed dead. The ship carried 4,200 passengers and crew.
The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest at his home near Naples and faces charges of abandoning ship and multiple counts of manslaughter. He has denied the allegations.
