More than a year after the Costa Concordia struck a reef, a team of more than 500 engineers from 24 countries are moving to right the ship.
The crippled Costa Concordia has been on its side since it struck the reef near Tuscany, Italy on Jan. 13, 2012. Of its 4,200 passengers and crew members, 32 were killed. Two bodies have never been recovered.
Engineers have never tried to right this large of a ship so close to land. The goal is to raise it from its side by 65 degrees to vertical for towing. The procedure to pull it upright is unpredictable and dangerous.
If the team is successful, the ship will be towed away to be broken up for scrap. Otherwise, the ship could break apart causing an environmental disaster, or roll back on its side and remain stuck.
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The effort uses a process called parbuckling, where engineers move to free the hull from the sea floor. For the Costa Concordia, they have looped 48 cables around the hull to pull the ship away from the reef in the most delicate part of the process -- too little pressure, and the ship remains stuck in the reef; too much, and the hull is crushed into pieces.
The process was delayed by a thunderstorm, preventing the team from positioning a barge containing the control room. But righting the ship soon is necessary, as the ship is unlikely to last another winter tipped over.
By midday, the ship had been raised three degrees. The whole operation could be complete within a day, provided the weather remains clear. After about five hours, the pulleys and cables attached to the ship will finish their job and gravity will take over, relying on the ship's buoyancy to finish the process.
