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Subscribe to RSSRough seas around the cruise ship Costa Concordia, stopped efforts to find the missing, and remove the fuel. A setback, as the ship continues to sink, in conditions too dangerous for divers. For survivors-- they're still coming to terms with their emotions, what they lost on board-- and whether the company's offer of compensation, is enough. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.
Updated at 3:50 p.m. ET
GIGLIO, Italy -- The Costa Concordia, precariously resting on one side, will likely be a part of the scenery off the Italian island of Giglio for the better part of a year.
The cruise line is considering bids for the ship's removal and is expected to make a decision -- based on method and costs -- in two months, NBC News has learned. Actual removal could take up to 10 months.
Inclement weather over the weekend shut down search and salvage efforts at the site of the ship wreck off the Tuscan coast. High winds and rough seas delayed plans to begin pumping 500,000 gallons of fuel off the Concordia. That effort will likely continue midweek. A barge carrying pumping equipment that was attached to the capsized ship was withdrawn after strong winds and high waves worsened conditions for the divers working on the huge wreck.
A 17th body is recovered from the Costa Concordia, but at least 16 more people are missing as weather hampers efforts to remove a half-million gallons of fuel. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports from Isola del Giglio.
The operation, aimed at preventing an environmental disaster in the pristine waters off a marine nature reserve, could take up to one month to complete.
The ship shifted more than one and a half inches over a six-hour period, and rescue divers were pulled from the water and are waiting for better conditions.
On Saturday, divers searching the submerged sixth floor deck found a 17th body, identified as Erika Soria Molina, a crew member from Peru. Sixteen people are still unaccounted for.
Officials have virtually ruled out finding anyone alive more than two weeks after the Costa Concordia hit a reef, but were reluctant to give a final death toll for the Jan. 13 disaster. The crash happened when the captain deviated from his planned route, creating a huge gash that capsized the ship. More than 4,200 people were on board.
"Our first goal was to find people alive," Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the operation, told a daily briefing. "Now we have a single, big goal, and that is that this does not translate into an environmental disaster."
DigitalGlobe
The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers, ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy. At least 15 people died in the accident, and rescuers continue to search for others missing.
Residents of Giglio have been circulating a petition to demand that officials provide more information on how the full-scale operations can coexist with the important tourism season. At the moment, access to the port for private boats has been banned and all boats must stay at least one mile from the wrecked ship, affecting access to Giglio's only harbor for fishermen, scuba divers and private boat owners.
"We are really sorry, we would have preferred to save them all. But now other needs and other problems arise," said Franca Melils, a local business owner who is promoting a petition for the tourist season. "It's about us, who work and make a living exclusively from tourism. We don't have factories, we don't have anything else."
The cruise ship disaster is expected to trigger the most expensive maritime insurance claim ever, and has set off a legal battle in which U.S. and Italian lawyers are preparing class-action and individual lawsuits against the operator, Costa Cruises.
In a bid to limit the fallout, Costa, a unit of Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise ship operator, has offered the more than 3,000 passengers $14,460 each in compensation on condition they drop any legal action.
Carnival Corp said on Monday that it will take a hit between $155 million and $175 million against fiscal 2012 net income because of the Concordia wreck. In an annual report filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Carnival also said it significantly reduced its marketing activities after the wreck.
"Costa's booking activity is difficult to interpret because of the significant re-booking activity stemming from the loss of the ship's use and related re-deployments," the company said. "However, we believe it to be down significantly. Despite these recent trends, we believe the incident will not have a significant long-term impact on our business."
Related: Passengers on wrecked ship offered $14,460
The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest, suspected of causing the accident by steering too close to shore, and faces charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation was complete.
The ship's first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, has also been questioned by prosecutors but the company itself has not been implicated in the investigation at this stage.
NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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They can clean up the world trade center in nine months but this will take longer?
Timeline based on Wikipedia citing the removal completion in May of 2002.
They rushed the WTC cleanup, to remove the evidence...
Remove the evidence? What evidence would you have hoped to find in that rubble? Are we still claiming that the buildings were brought down by someone other than terrorists? For what purpose and what purpose has it served?
The WTC cleanup was easy considering there was no caution needed to remove piles of concrete, steel and glass. It will take a month alone just to remove the 500,000 gallons of fuel from the ship. I'm sure all oils and other hazardous materials will also need to be removed.
Toss a handful of pennies on your kitchen floor then throw a handful of pennies in a local lake or pond, even a swimming pool would do, then time yourself to see which area you can clean up quicker.
jam, thanks for the laugh.
It will take a year if the Italians do it, six months if Americans do it, or three months if Mother Nature does it.
I was thinking the same thing! Additionally, I thought the plan was to blow up massive ballons so it could float and be towed to a dock for repair?
After a year in the water, the ship will be good only for scrap.
Don't the Norwegians have a salvage ship that can pretty much pick up another crippled ship? I remember it being used to retrieve the USS Cole. Maybe the cruise ship is too big or it can't be picked up in the condition it's in (on it's side, half full of water)
Get a tool bag, put about 50 pounds of weight in and swim around with it in a pool for a while. After that throw a car door in the water, take a pnuematic drill underwater, set it up and drill a hole in the car door. Make sure the water is really cold, and murky so you cant see more than a few inches in front of your face. Maybe then you'll understand why this is so hard.
Indeed... what caution can possibly be necessary with...
floating in the air.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_arising_from_the_September_11_attacks
Uhm... yeah? They can't just hack it apart and haul the pieces away with a dump truck, y'know. They're working mostly under water and they have to protect the environment that they're removing it from.
Unless you know some folks with gills.
Am I the only one who thinks they should leave it there as an awesome diving destination? I would pay good money to see it.
I'm pretty sure that's one of the options, to tow it out further and sink it completely. They can't leave it in place as a diving destination, since it's on an unstable bed it could be a hazard to any divers. That's the reason cited in the article as to why rescue operations have needed to be stopped repeatedly.
I'm sure it'll be a really nice artificial reef once it's completely submerged though. The spearfishing would be excellent.
does anyone remember there are 16 missing people who still maybe on that ship? would you want your family member tombs used for recreational fishing?
It actually happens with WW2 submarine wrecks... The East Coast of the US has plenty of shipwrecks where people have died.
Still no real news - do they propose to refloat and maybe rebuild the boat, or just cut pieces and haul them to deeper water? Although, if they refloat and rebuild, would it have the reputation of a hoodoo ship?
If they can clear this wreck in one year, that would be a remarkably rapid feat. Pity the poor fishermen who will be banned from using their harbor for over a year. Will Costa replace their incomes?
If they decide to cut it up, the pieces will be hauled to a scrap yard. The steel, aluminum and copper would be worth it.
If they refloat it, then an Indian company will buy it for scrap and in a month, nothing would be left. The insurance company has to pay for the removal and little will be left of the settlement to refurbish the boat. The inside cleaning will be enormous.
Well, for heaven's sake, why should they rush things. Let's just wait for another environmental disaster.
Yeah. Because it's soooooo quick and easy to refloat and remove a 7476483293746 ton ship. The thing still has bodies on it, for crap's sake.
Friggin MSN comment-posting experts.
If I were a passenger, I would not take the $14,000+ they are offering. That's a weak pay off for what has happened. Obviously, the passengers that lost their lives, their families should get a lot more. The island that may possibly lose money from the tourism also needs a pay off. I normally am not on the side of paying people off, but in this case, they are due.
they could get a lot more if this happened in the United States, but that isnt the case. They are on a tight time line in even file and it has to be done in the Italian courts. Also from what I am hearing about cruising is that there is a waiver that sets limits on liability amounts too! they may never see anymore then what is being offered.
Someone has been watching too much "reality TV". To cut this thing up into floatable sections and tow it out of the way may take twice as long as they predict, because they don't apparently take the weather into consideration. The Italians said it would take a week to get the fuel off, but are still fighting the weather two weeks later. One year is a conservative estimate. To the wag who sail the WTC only took a year, that's because it was on dry land and there were a lot more people involved than can possibly be put to work salvaging this ship.
I don't understand why this should take so long. You patch the breaches in the lower hull, pump out the water from the inside, slap a couple of large "camels" (external flotation devices) on the outside of the hull to raise the draft enough for it to float, tow it out to sea and Bob's your uncle. A couple of months I could see, but a year? Ridiculous.
First the fuel has to be removed. The tanks on the port side are already prepared to be drained but work is stopped due to weather. It will take 2-3 weeks to drain those 6 tanks. Then they need to get to the tanks on the submerged side, which will be much more difficult. The ship is on a ledge and has movement so it will be much more difficult to prepare them. The gash in the side is about 160 ft long with huge rock in it. Your simplistic idea sounds great on paper but is not realistic. Not done properly, this could end up not only being one of the worst maritime accidents in recent history but a huge environmental disaster.
I know. That's what they're doing now (or at least they were until the weather got worse).
I know that too.
A ridiculously long amount of time. It took around 5 days to transfer 1.3 million gallons of fuel from a barge 1/2 mile off the coast of Nome Alaska, which is more than twice what Costa Concordia was carrying. Granted the conditions under which Costa Concordia is suffering are more extreme, but not by much. But fine, let's assume 2-3 weeks.
The work of perhaps another week or so, then another 2-3 weeks to transfer THAT fuel. So that brings us to 6-7 weeks to transfer all fuel off the ship; I'll be charitable and call it 2 months.
Yup.
The work of perhaps 2 days to dislodge.
The "environmental disaster" would only come if fuel were spilled from the stricken vessel, which is why I hope they take their time and get all of it out. But after that? A year to finally get the vessel out of there? Ridiculous.
Oh yeah don't forget that they also blew a bunch of holes into the ship for rescue operations. It's gotta be pretty messy in there.
On top of that, we don't actually know what the plan is that they estimated a year. It could be a plan to completely dismantle and scrap the ship. Or even to get the ship upright again.
How about the side of the ship that is not under water, there has to be many personal belongings, cameras, video, wallets, cash, how about the casino and all that money, the Flat screen tv's, computers that are still on the side not in the water, you think they would go in and remove all of that?
not to mention there are still 16 bodies on this ship.....
How about the side of the ship that is not under water, there has to be many personal belongings, cameras, video, wallets, cash, how about the casino and all that money, the Flat screen tv's, computers that are still on the side not in the water, you think they would go in and remove all of that?
Wow, remove evidence. How many members of the deep, dark conspiratorial movement of the under ground live and breath. AND I bet they believe that the Holocaust never happened.
Yet they think Obama is a great president and never, never circumvents the law for his own agenda.
"Yet they think Obama is a great president and never, never circumvents the law for his own agenda"
What law would that be? What does Obama have to do with the wreck... oh wait your republican and you probably think Obama programmed the navigation computer so it would crash into the rocks.
D-bag...
First, they need to patch the holes and then they need to buy the worlds supply of ping pong balls and just pump them in. They did it on Mythbusters and it worked.
Why not just pump the whole ship full of expanding foam and tow it out of there.
Why don't they just roll it off the ledge into the deep water? Few hours, max with a bunch of tug boats.
Repair the breaches? Obviously you have not seen the pictures of the breaches. Google hole in costa concordia then come back here and tell us just how you would "slap a patch" on that.
Roll it into deeper water? Yeah right and what about the 500,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil on board? Just dump that in the water too? This is an environmental disaster in the making and due to weather and rough seas is an engineering nightmare. As a fellow diver I too would love to see it sunk as an artificial reef but in order to do that all environmental contaminants have to be removed prior to the sinking. This ship has sailed her last voyage.
The ping-pong idea sounds good. I remember where a sailing boat(about 150 ft) was refloated using "HEFTY BAGS"!
ap your idea will work if they can figure a way of sealing off the section of the ship where the hull is opened. Most Cruise Liners are not water tight at all if the water level get above the side railing of the hull it will be a lost cause. I am sure they have figure out a way to float the ship using air bags so it displaces the weight of the water with air.
if this ship does settle by itself they will never just be able to get it clean enough to sink as a dive site or a artifical reef. Not even thinking about the heavy oil on board just what is used in the engine room solvents and diesel it will never happen. Cleaning supplies and all the junk that would wash ashore. I am surprised that a salvage company hasn't arleady tried to start using air bags to make sure it doesn't totally sink but they may fear it slipping into much deeper water that is not to alfully far away from where the ship lies now. The only thing this ship is worth now is salvage. To repair and total refit the ship would cost more then to rebuild a new one. one thing is for sure all the gaint salvage outfitds are hammering their engineers to firgure out how to secure it and how to keep it stable enough using "float barges' under the sides of the hull to get it to a place they can cut it up safely
How did they come up with that figure? It would be understandable if it were a round number like $15,000 but $14,460 sounds like a division of their insurance limits divided by the victims. What did they do, round it to the nearest ten dollars? What is the price to survive a sinking? If someone offered you $14,460 to go on a boat and told you they were gonna sink it would you take it? I didn't see what they were offering the families of the deceased. I'd want a little more to let them try to kill me, oh say the million dollars
That does sound like an awful long time to remove that ship.
Few realize what a tremendous undertaking the removal of this ship will be.If anyone has been in or near one of these cruise ships,you will realize that they are unbelievably huge vessels. With the size and complexity of a multi story building. These ships are not hollow. They have hundreds of compartments,hallways,staterooms and mechanical areas that are flooded with seawater. Not to mention the weight of the ship and its contents that are already heavy and are now waterlogged. Even with anchoring and securing measures in place, removal of the fuel and water will likely cause the ship to dangerously shift as its center of gravity changes.And some flooded compartments that are closed and full of water may not drain as fast as the water is pumped out causing unpredictable motion. Top areas that are not sealed off will refill with water faster than it can be pumped out. The planning alone on how do do this safely could take months as well as the actual preparations before removal or salvage can even begin. If the ship is refloated in one piece,I have to wonder if it would be cost effective or even possible to try to rebuild it.Even with short exposure to seawater, the interior of the ship and much of its electrical,mechanical,and other systems as well as some structural parts are heavily damaged or destroyed. A complete stripping and gutting of the ship and an inch by inch inspection,cleaning and repair would be necessary to fix all of the damage.Even if repairs were done and the ship was renamed and rechristened, it will always have its sad past.Would anyone want to sail on it?
well,, if we get free reign and total!! assistance??.. 6 weeks tops,..and it will be intact, and it will! be repairable and back in action in 18 mths or so,..this is a bit like that gulf oil disaster,,, and sorry, but I gotta ask,,,WTH is going on there??[funny ya know, I asked the same thing re, the gulf deal??]..it is a bit complicated but not beyond the usual and heavy lifts, while taking experience and professionals,, are not!! rocket science,, not at all,..the right gear, the right people,,[oh, and quite a bit of money$$$] and this is do-able,,
How many hundreds of ships were sunk in WWII? I don't think fuel was removed from many of those. Was that a big environmental disaster? If so, I don't remember a word being said or written about it. I guess times have changed.
I know!! Let's just blame Obama and get it over with. After all, isn't it always his fault? *
*sarcasam alert*
Removing the fuel will change the buoyancy of this vessel significantly. This will result in much greater stress in some areas. Those responsible for the ultimate disposition of the ship should be responsible for this process!
Running out there to "get the gas off" so it doesn't leak into the ocean is likely a dumb thing to do!
Don't make the problem worse with another knee jerk reaction.