Last Updated 10:18 a.m. ET
GIGLIO ISLAND, Italy A complex system of pulleys and counterweights successfully dislodged the capsized Costa Concordia from its rocky seabed perch on a Tuscan reef at Giglio Island, where it capsized 20 months ago -- an anxiously-awaited operation of a kind that has never been attempted on such a huge vessel.
Watch: Costa Concordia salvage operation kicks off
Engineers told reporters they'd succeeded in detaching the 952-foot-long vessel from the reef on which it was resting, and the operation was continuing.
The crippled vessel wouldn't budge for some three hours after the operation to right it -- known in nautical parlance as "parbuckling" -- began at around 9:00 a.m. local time, engineer Sergio Girotto told reporters. But after 6,000 tons of force were applied, "we saw the detachment" of the ship from the reef using undersea cameras, Girotto said.
Franco Gabrielli of the Civil Protection Agency said, "It is absolutely clear that the rotation is ongoing and it happened as we expected."
Rolling the ship off the seabed and onto huge underwater platforms was expected to take eight to ten hours.
The goal is to raise the ship 65 degrees to a vertical position, for eventual towing.
Thirty-two people were killed when the ship ran aground on the night of January 13, 2012. Dozens of the 4,200 passengers and crew were plucked to safety by helicopters or jumped into the sea and swam to shore.
Of the death toll, two are still missing. No bodies had been spotted since the operation commenced, the engineers said.
A view of the deck of the submerged Costa Concordia, from June 2012 (left), and on September 16, 2013 (right), as operations to right the capsized vessel were underway.
/ VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/GettyImages; CBS News
Parbuckling is a proven method to raise capsized vessels, but the Concordia is thought to be the largest cruise ship to ever require it.
The Costa Concordia is around two-and-a-half times the size of the Titanic, and no one wants to see it split apart, reports CBS News' Sabina Castelfranco.
The operation has attracted crowds of tourists and media, waiting to see the ship lifted.
"From what I can see it's moving bit by bit, it's raised about a meter and half from the sea level," said one of the tourists gathered on the harbor wall to watch it slowly rise out of the water.
Few of the locals will ever forget the night the Costa Concordia struck rocks. There was a mad rush to provide assistance to the thousands fleeing the ship. The harsh reality that 32 people lost their lives in the disaster still haunts many of them.
Costa Concordia: Salvaging a shipwreck
Inside the Costa Concordia wreck
Two bodies are still missing, and their families are hopeful they will now be found.
Since the tragedy, the people of Giglio have watched their island's port transform itself into a work-in-progress area for an unprecedented salvage operation. A 500-member international team of engineers and mechanics has worked tirelessly for months with one goal in mind: removing the 114,500-ton ship firmly stuck to two outcrops of rock on the seabed.
But it's a hugely complex operation and not one that is without risks. It is those risks that most concern the locals at this time.
They have been assured that all calculations have been made and nothing has been left to chance, but these islanders are concerned. Everyone is aware there are still 237.5 cubic meters of polluted water inside the ship, which could cause significant environmental damage to Giglio's pristine waters.
CBS News graphic shows the precarious position of the Costa Concordia before parbuckling operations began Monday
/ CBS
Additional emergency vehicles have arrived on the island, and as extra precaution, inflatable pollution barriers and fishing nets have been put up around the wreck and along the shoreline, in an effort to hold back any debris or oil that will spew from the Concordia as she turns.
The green light was given to its rotation after it became clear the ship could not remain in its current position another winter.
1/2
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar