Costa Concordia Salvage: Day 1 Timeline
The first day of the refloating operation of the Costa Concordia has concluded successfully. Confirming technician’s estimations, the wreck is now afloat thanks to the buoyancy given by sponsons, 2.2 meters off the false sea bed, and has been towed for about 30 meters eastwards. Timeline comes from the salvors' 'The Parbuckling Project'.
6.00 am: (Monday) The Costa Concordia refloating operations started as the Senior Salvage Master, Nick Sloane, reached the Remote Operations Center located on the Concordia with the rest of the team.
8.30 am: With the arrival of the ferry at 8.30 am the final phase of the lightening of the wreck has begun. Only less then 1,000 tonnes of weight remain, out of the initial 30,000 tonnes; as soon as this step is completed, the wreck can be lifted off the platforms. In a first stage, this will happen in the stern area.
12.00 : The Concordia’s stern and bow are now detached from the false sea bed by about 1 meter. The wreck is floating thanks to the sponsons. Before being towed 30 meters East, the Concordia will need to be refloated of another meter. Technicians have now begun to tighten the chains on starboard sponson S14, as planned.
8.00 pm : The first day of the refloating operation of the Concordia has concluded successfully. Confirming technician’s estimations, the wreck is now afloat thanks to the buoyancy given by sponsons, 2 2 meters off the false sea bed, and it has been towed for about 30 meters eastwards. The wreck is securely moored and therefore the first phase of the refloating operations has now ended.
Around and under the Concordia operations are still on going to connect some chains and cables to the sponsons.
(The Costa Concordia's owners, Costa Crociere, estimate the operation to remove the wreck from the reef and tow it for scrapping will cost 1.5bn euros (US$2bn) in total).