Costa Concordia Wreck Rotation: Tentative Date Set
The rotation of the Concordia is fixed for six o'clock in the morning of Monday, September 16th. However, weather conditions have to be favorable and a final decision will be therefore communicated by 2 pm the day before, announces Italy government Civil Protection Commissioner Franco Gabrielli .
The cruise shipl, which has rested partly submerged in shallow waters off the Tuscan island of Giglio since the accident in January 2012, will be rolled off the seabed and onto underwater platforms if all goes according to plan.
Workers will look for the bodies of two people, an Italian and an Indian unaccounted for since the disaster, as machines haul the 114,000-tonne ship upright and underwater cameras comb the seabed.
Divers have pumped 18,000 metric tons of cement into bags below the ship to support it and prevent it from breaking up in an operation to upright the vessel which is expected to last 8-10 hours and is part of a salvage operation estimated to cost at least $300 million.