Salvaging Costa Concordia Could Take Two Years

As the preparations for the salvage operation of the Costa Concordia are underway, the former director of SMIT Salvage - the company in charge of the salvage operation in Italy - said on Wednesday that the whole operation could last between one and two years.

              

At least 16 people died with another 16 still missing after the cruise ship capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Jan 13th.           

 

On Saturday salvage teams hope to start pumping out diesel fuel from the wreck, and that could take a month.

 

The ship then will have to be dismantled.              

 

To achieve this, they can upright the vessel and tow it away or scrap it on the spot.              

 

Smit salvage says both methods are problematic.              

 

[Hans van Rooij, Salvage Expert]: 

"You will find a lot of hurdles on the road, that's the weight of the vessel, the angle of the vessel, the sloping underground on which vessel is resting, the stability of the rotation point you want to have, so all those things are going to play a crucial role in determining methodology."              

 

Scrapping in situ would be dangerous too.            

 

[Hans van Rooij, Salvage Expert]: 

"… It's a dangerous operation for all the people involved, cutting and working with those sections, but if option one is not possible, then a fallback is to scrap it."