Costa Concordia starts salvaging in May

Removing Costa Concordia cruise ship stranded by coastal waters from an escrow Italian island will begin in May and lasts about a year, ship owner said.

“Once back in a floating state, the accident would be withdrawn at an Italian port,” said Costa Cruises in a statement.

A decision on what to do with the ship after being dragged will be up to the Italian authorities, Pier Luigi Foschi under, President of Costa Cruises.

US-based Titan Salvage of Florida and Micoperi, an Italian-based storage, have been selected to recover and tow away Concordia, Costa said.

The announcement follows news that Costa Saturday the bodies of all but two of the 32 people believed to have died in the accident were found.

Cruise ship hit the rocks and turned on its side on January 13 from Italian island Giglio.

Recovery teams for weeks in search of submerged decks and cabins for those unable to escape the sinking ship.

Liner, owned by Genoa-based Costa Cruises carried about 3200 passengers and 1000 crew members when the rocks fell.

Concordia captain, Francesco Schettino, still under house arrest while he was being checked for possible criminal prosecution.

It stands on charges of murder, causing a shipwreck, leaving the ship, in the absence of a Coast Guard accident report and the destruction of natural habitat, a prosecutor said last month. A part of the coastal waters designated as Giglio of protected marine habitat.

Schettino’s first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, and six other officials on both vessels and companies in Costa Genova investigation on charges including murder, shipwreck, and not reporting the accident, the prosecutor said.

To date nobody has been charged.

Schettino said the previous managers of the cruise line Costa instructed him to sail around the island and has denied accusations that he was sailing too fast. He said the boat hit a rock was not recorded on his maps of the area.

source; http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/22/world/europe/italy-concordia-salvage/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

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