The delicate operation to refloat the wreck of the Costa Concordia has gone smoothly, say officials
The wreck of the 290-metre Costa Concordia cruise ship has been successfully refloated.
Officials say that 30 inflated tanks or ‘sponsons’ have raised the ship off the platform it had rested on since it was righted in September and it will now be towed to Genoa for scrapping.
The huge cruse ship crashed into a reef in January 2012, killing 32 people and injuring many more.
The former captain, Francesco Schettino, is currently on trial for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and for abandoning the vessel before all of the 4,229 passengers and crew had been evacuated.
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