The hunt for the last two missing Costa Concordia passengers was today underway after a dramatic 19-hour operation saw the ship finally pulled upright. Salvage officials believe the bodies of waiter Russel Rebello and
passenger Maria Grazia Trecarichi could be found in a lifeboat beneath the ship’s hull. It was hoped remains would become visible as the complex system of cables
and hydraulics hauled the vessel - on which 32 lives were lost - from its
side. Scroll down for videos
Successful: Rotating the wreck of the Costa
Concordia cruise ship is believed to be one of the biggest maritime
salvage operations in history
Wide view: The severly damaged side of the
stricken Costa Concordia is visible after the parbuckling operation
succesfully uprighted the ship around 4am
Upright again: The recovery of the ship Costa
Concordia shipwreck was successfully completed early this morning off
the island of Giglio
Destroyed: Work began to right the stricken
Costa Concordia vessel, which sank in January 2012. If the operation is
successful, it will then be towed away and scrapped
Vertical: Rust and grime covers one half of the
Costa Concordia after the stricken vessel was winched upright after more
than a year resting on its side in Giglion harbour
What happens next: The damage must be repaired
to stabilize the ship so it can withstand the coming winter, when seas
and winds will whip the liner
Salvage teams worked through the night for 19 hours - and decks eventually became visible after being underwater for 20 months since it went down. The vessel is covered in rust and stained by the sea, while all the windows which were submerged in Giglio harbour, Italy, have been shattered. Kevin Rebello, the waiter's brother,
and Elio Vincenzi, the passenger's husband, were expected to arrive on the island today. 'I haven't slept since yesterday,'
Kevin Rebello said in an interview in Rome. 'It's taken 20 months. If it
takes another 20 hours, for me it's worth the wait.'
Finally above water: The wrecked side of the
Costa Concordia, which has been submerged under water for the last 20
months, was finally visible this morning
Reporting: Broadcast crew work in front of the wreckage of Italy's Costa Concordia cruise ship near the harbour of Giglio Porto
Dedication: The wreck of Italy's Costa Concordia
was finally upright this morning after salvage crews worked through the
night to complete the 19-hour operation
Lifted up: The severly damaged side of the
stricken Costa Concordia is visible after the parbuckling operation
succesfully uprighted the ship
Above sea level: Work began yesterday to right the stricken Costa Concordia vessel, which sank on January 12, 2012
Operation: A detail of the right side of the
Costa Concordia is seen after it was lifted upright on the Tuscan Island
of Giglio, Italy, early this morning
Wreckage: The damaged side of the capsized
cruise liner Costa Concordia is seen at the end of the 'parbuckling'
operation outside Giglio harbour
Effects of marine life: The damaged side of the
capsized cruise liner Costa Concordia is seen at the end of the
'parbuckling' operation outside Giglio harbour
Looking on: Salvage crews have completed one of the most difficult and expensive wreck recovery projects ever performed
All in one piece: The capsized cruise liner
Costa Concordia is seen at the end of the 'parbuckling' operation
outside Giglio harbour
Big job: The crippled cruise ship was pulled
completely upright early this morning after a complicated, 19-hour
operation to wrench it from its side where it capsized
Operation: The hunt for the last two missing
Costa Concordia passengers was today under way after the ship was
finally pulled upright early this morning
First of its kind: The procedure, known as
parbuckling, has never been carried out on a vessel as large as Costa
Concordia before
And Mr Vincenzi said: ‘I am still hoping to find my wife. This is a tense wait for me and for my daughter.' Despite fears the ship may break
apart before it reached the crucial angle of 65 degrees, the operation
has gone smoothly, but slower than expected. The £500million salvage effort is
said to be the largest in maritime history, but there will be no saving
the £370million liner - destined for the scrapyard. Local
residents and survivors said that there was an eerie feeling as the
ship rose - and some said the sight reminded them of the tragedy. ‘Seeing
it re-emerge is emotional for me,’ said survivor Luciano Castro. ‘I
could not miss it. That ship could have been my end and instead I am
here.' The operation will not be complete
until the vessel is towed away from the island - probably by next
spring, after a full survey is done on the wreckage. Shortly after 4am today, a
foghorn wailed on Giglio island and the head of Italy's Civil Protection
agency announced that the ship had reached vertical. Franco Gabrielli added that the operation to rotate the cruise liner - known in nautical terms as
parbuckling - was complete. Some
36 giant cables were put across the hull to drag up the ship - and
enormous tanks were welded onto its side and filled with water to act as
ballast. 'We completed the parbuckling
operation a few minutes ago the way we thought it would happen and the
way we hoped it would happen,' said Franco Porcellacchia, project manager for the Concordia's owner, Costa Crociere Spa. 'A perfect operation, I must say.' No environmental spill has been detected so far, he said. Applause
rang out among firefighters in the tent where the engineers
made the announcement. An hour later, Nick Sloane, the South African
chief salvage master, received a hero's welcome as he came ashore from
the barge that had served as the floating command control room for the
operation.
Inspection: Members of US company Titan Salvage
and Italian firm Micoperi look at the damaged side of the wreckage of
Italy's Costa Concordia cruise ship
Mission: Salvage experts started the rotation of
the ship yesterday at around 9am, before the ship was finally laid to
rest on an underwater mattress today at 4am
Difficult task: The Concordia's submerged side
suffered significant damage during the 20 months it bore the weight of
the ship on the jagged reef
Rusty: Salvage operators in Italy lifted the
Costa Concordia cruise ship upright from its watery grave off the island
of Giglio in the biggest ever project of its kind
Damage: The vessel is covered in rust and
stained by the sea, while all the windows which were submerged in Giglio
harbour, Italy, have been shattered
Smashed: Damaged windows of the wreckage of Italy's Costa Concordia cruise ship near the harbour of Giglio Porto
Back up: As the ship rose from the depths, decks
which have been underwater for 20 months since the ship went down with
the loss of 32 lives, became visible
Wreck: The previously sunken side of the Costa
Concordia is covered in rust and stained by the sea while all the
windows are shattered
Detail: The Costa Concordia vessel is covered in
rust and stained by the sea while all the windows which were submerged
are shattered
Momentous occasion: A foghorn sounded across the
harbour of Giglio Porto as 4am this morning to mark the moment the
Costa Concordia completed its 65 degree rotation
Breaking dawn: The upright wreck of the Costa
Concordia cruise ship can be seen as the sun rises over Giglio in Italy
this morning
As day breaks: The Costa Concordia cruise liner
is seen after it was lifted upright, on the Tuscan Island of Giglio,
Italy, early Tuesday morning
Picture perfect: The ship was wrenched from its
side where it capsized last year off Tuscany, with officials declaring
it a 'perfect' end to a daring engineering feat
'Brilliant! Perfetto,' Sloane said,
using some of the Italian he has learned over the past year on Giglio
preparing for Tuesday's operation. 'It was a struggle, a bit of a roller coaster. But for the whole team it was fantastic.' The Concordia slammed into a reef off Giglio Island on January
13, 2012, after the captain brought it too close to shore. The cruise
ship drifted, listed and capsized just off the island's port, killing 32
people.
Standing straight: The Costa Concordia after it
was lifted upright, on the Tuscan Island of Giglio, Italy, in the early
hours Tuesday morning
THE LAST TWO MISSING BODIES
Russel Rebello(right) was a waiter on board the ship and a married father-of-two from Mumbai, India. The
33 year old - who had been working on the Costa Concordia for a few
months before the incident - was praised for his heroism in saving lives
before he died when the cruise liner sank. He
even gave one survivor his own lifejacket - and was last seen as he
made his way to a muster station at a restaurant on the ship. His brother Kevin Rebello, said that he hopes he can one day bring his brother home to Mumbai ‘to give him a decent burial’.
Passenger Maria Grazia Trecarichi was celebrating her 50th birthday on the ship with her 17-year-old daughter Stefania. They boarded different lifeboats because Mrs Trecarichi (above), from Sicily, was cold and had gone below deck to get a jacket. Stefania survived. Elio Vincenzi, her husband, said: ‘I am still hoping to find my wife. This is a tense wait for me and for my daughter.'
Standing straight: The Costa Concordia
after it was lifted upright, on the Tuscan Island of Giglio, Italy, in
the early hours Tuesday morning
Close up: The crippled cruise ship was pulled
completely upright early Tuesday morning after a 19-hour operation to
wrench it from its side. Officials declaring it a 'perfect' end to a
daring and unprecedented engineering feat
Complicated operation: Salvage workers attempt
to raise the cruise ship last night by 'parbuckling' - rotating the ship
by a series of cables and hydraulic machines
Surveying the damage: The severely damaged side
of the stricken Costa Concordia is visible after the parbuckling
operation successfully put the cruise ship upright this morning
Steady progress: Engineers managed to raise the
ship 25 degrees during the course of the day and said they hoped things
would get easier as gravity starts to take effect
Carefully watched: Every minute of the lengthy
operation has been followed by the world's media, pictured, who have
descended on Giglio and camped out overnight
Engineers are now using remote controls to
carefully open valves to let seawater start filling huge ballast tanks
that had been welded onto the already exposed side so the weight of the
water in the tanks helped pull the cruise liner up much faster
Giglio was hit by an electrical storm
yesterday which delayed the start of the winching by three hours and it
was a further three hours before the huge system of pulleys,
counterweights and chains eased the cruise liner free. The salvage operation involved engineers using the
technique known as 'parbuckling', rotating the vessel using a series of
cables and hydraulic machines.
‘After applying 6,000 tons of force, we saw the detachment of the ship from the reef,’ said engineering chief Sergio Girotto.
In an unprecedented maritime salvage
operation, engineers on Monday gingerly wrestled the hull of the
shipwrecked Costa Concordia off the Italian reef where the cruise ship
has been stuck since January 2012
Losing light: As work continues into the night
the top desk is now almost entirely visible above the waves for the
first time since January 2012
Engineers inspect parts of Costa Concordia which
have lain underwater for nearly two years - the salvage operation was
underway yesterday off the coast of Giglio island
Emerging from the depths: The distinctive marks
and broken windows show exactly where the water level stopped even as it
is gradually turned upright
The capsized Costa Concordia liner is pictured
several hours in to the £500m operation to right the vessel which is
involving engineers from 24 different countries
The shipwrecked cruise Costa Concordia before
the start of parbucking (top) and after the salvage work starts
(bottom), showing the rusty yellowish-stain (circled) where it at
rested, during the ongoing operation in Giglio
The rusty yellowish-stain line on the wreck of
the Costa Concordia cruise ship after (L) and before (R) it was slowly
lifted during salvage works
The line of rust, left, shows the progress of
efforts to move the enormous ship and right, taken 92 minutes after the
top picture, the bottom image shows the painfully slow process of
lifting the Costa Concordia off its side
Winching the liner upright was expected
to take up to 12 hours, but a threat of tangles in the steel cables last
night delayed the operation, which was eventually completed after 19
hours. The final phase of the rotation went
remarkably fast as gravity began to kick in and pull the ship toward
its normal vertical position. Parbuckling
is a standard operation to right capsized ships. But never before had
it been used on such a huge cruise liner. The Concordia is expected to
be floated away from Giglio in the spring and turned into scrap. Sloane
said an initial inspection of the starboard side, covered in brown
slime from its 20 months underwater while the ship was stuck on a rocky
seabed perch, indicated serious damage that must be fixed in the coming
weeks and months. The damage he said was caused by both the capsizing
and the operation to rotate the ship.
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