Rescue crews in Indonesia battle high seas to reach ship with 120 on board

Rescue crews in Indonesia are braving high seas to rescue more 120 passengers aboard a boat at risk of sinking.

Deutsche Welle, 19 December 2015

The ferry boat carrying around 120 passengers was hit by 3 to 5 meter waves off the coast of the Sulawesi on Saturday, forcing the captain to send out a distress signal.

Initial media reports suggested the fiberglass boat carrying passengers from Kolaka to Siwa on Sulawesi island had sunk, but authorities later said the boat was taking in water and its engine had broken.

"The ship has not sunk," a South Sulawesi police spokesman said by phone.

A search and rescue official told Reuters that rescue teams were trying to reach the stranded passengers, including at least 19 children.

There was no mention of casualties, but Indonesia's search and rescue agency and navy have been notified.

Indonesia relies heavily on passenger boats to connect 17,000 islands but the transport sector has a poor safety record.

cw/jm (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

Nearly 400 dead in China ship sinking as search for bodies widens

Yahoo – AFP, Neil Connor, 6 June 2015

The "Eastern Star" cruise ship, which had more than 456 people on board when

 it overturned on June 1 in a storm on the Yangtze, has been fully raised during 

the salvage operation in Jianli, China's Hubei province (AFP Photo)

Jianli (China) (AFP) - Rescuers extended their search for victims of a Chinese cruise ship sinking to include a vast stretch of the Yangtze river Saturday, as the confirmed death toll rose to 396, marking the country's worst shipping disaster in nearly 70 years.

With most bodies retrieved from the battered ship, officials widened the search scope to 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) of the Yangtze in the hope of finding 46 people still unaccounted for, state news agency Xinhua said.

Only 14 survivors have been confirmed out of the 456 people -- mostly tourists aged over 60 -- on board when the "Eastern Star" rapidly sank on China's biggest river in a storm on Monday, in the central county of Jianli.

Rescue workers look at the sunken 

passenger ship being lifted by cranes in

 the Yangtze river in Jianli in China's

 Hubei province on June 5, 2015

(AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)

The Ministry of Transport late Saturday ordered water traffic authorities and shipping companies to assist in the hunt, which stretches from Jianli in Hubei province, past the cities of Wuhan and Nanjing, to Shanghai on the east coast.

The death toll jumped by over 200 after rescuers used massive cranes to hoist the vessel out of the water on Friday and began recovering bodies trapped inside.

Xinhua put the number of dead at 396 as of noon local time (0400 GMT) on Saturday.

The figure makes it China's worst shipping disaster since 1948, when up to 4,000 on board the SS Kiangya were killed when it sank near Shanghai.

A government spokesman said on Thursday that no further survivors are expected to be found.

Freak tornado

As images showed the blue and white vessel's caved-in roof, state broadcaster CCTV said rescuers' torches were visible inside the ship overnight.

Online images showed workers wearing surgical suits handling body bags in the vessel's dark cabins, while others slept on a nearby floating platform, exhausted by their grim work.

At a nearby funeral parlour, AFP saw men also dressed in the white suits driving a convoy of about 20 mini-vans adapted to carry coffins towards the disaster site.

Reports citing witnesses said the 76.5-metre-long (250 feet) and 2,200-tonne ship overturned in under a minute, and weather officials said a freak tornado hit the area at the time.

The vessel was cited for safety infractions two years ago, according to a notice by the Nanjing Maritime Bureau, but no further details have been given about the state of the ship.

Cranes raise the sunken vessel "Eastern Star" (C) in the Yangtze river

in Jianli, central China's Hubei province (AFP Photo)

Investigators will probe the ship's structure for flaws, CCTV said, after the ruling Communist party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee vowed to leave "no doubts remaining" about the disaster.

Information about the sinking and media access to the site have been tightly controlled, and online criticism of the search operation quickly deleted.

China's stability-obsessed Communist rulers often seek to contain anger over the official handling of disasters, fearing that it could spiral into dissent.

Beijing clamped down on criticism in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake, which killed tens of thousands in 2008, and when dozens died in a high-speed rail crash in the eastern city of Wenzhou in 2011.

Angry scenes

Relatives of those on board the Eastern Star clashed with police earlier this week, and an angry woman berated officials at a press conference in Jianli on Friday.

A group of relatives from Nanjing, the city in the eastern province of Jiangsu where the boat began its journey, argued with officials from their home town at a meeting in Jianli on Saturday morning, AFP learned.

Local residents take part in a candlelight 

vigil to pay their respects to victims of the

 sunken ship in Jianli, China's Hubei province

on June 4, 2015 (AFP Photo)

A city official refused to make clear commitments to families about them receiving the bodies, showing "impatience", a woman at the meeting surnamed Zhang said.

He responded to questions by telling relatives they should do his job if they were not satisfied, she added.

Family members who emerged from the meeting looked visibly upset as they hugged each other and walked away arm in arm, shaking their heads.

Other relatives who had arrived in Jianli were growing impatient at the lack of information and the lack of access to the disaster zone.

"We have come all this way, but all we are doing is waiting," said Jin Weifeng, who travelled from Shanghai to seek news of his mother-in-law Wang Shuisheng.

A petition posted by family members on social media service WeChat called for "key state leaders" to apologise, an investigation, compensation and the "death sentence" for the ship's captain -- one of the few survivors of the disaster -- who is in police custody.

Local reports said other ships in the area on the day of the accident had dropped anchor after a warning of heavy storms, but the Eastern Star continued on.

More than 3,400 soldiers and 1,700 paramilitary police are part of the rescue effort, Xinhua reported, with the Transport Ministry saying Saturday that 254 additional vessels and more than 2,500 people would join the search operation.

Related Article:

Hundreds still missing after China cruise ship sinks

Hundreds still missing after China cruise ship sinks

Yahoo – AFP, Neil Connor, 2 June 2015

Chinese divers rescue an elderly passenger from the Dongfangzhixing ferry

 which sank in the Yangtze river, Hubei province, on June 2, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Rescuers pulled at least three people from the wreckage of a capsized Chinese cruise ship Tuesday as fears mounted for the more than 400 people still missing after the boat sank in a storm.

Just 14 people have been confirmed as surviving after the Dongfangzhixing, or "Eastern Star," a tourist boat rapidly overturned late Monday on the Yangtze river in central China, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Six bodies have been recovered from the wreckage, leaving hundreds more still missing, possibly trapped within the ship which apparently sank in a matter of seconds with 458 people on board, state media said.

An elderly survivor is rescued from the

 Dongfangzhixing ferry which sank in the 

Yangtze river on June 2, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Local reports said the passengers were mostly aged over 60.

Television footage showed rescuers on top of a section of the ship's hull which remained above water, some pressing their ears against it.

"Rescuers knocked on the ship and received responses," the Hubei Daily newspaper said. "Three people were found alive."

Zhang Hui, a 43-year-old tour guide on board, described a storm roiling the boat which tilted by as much as 45 degrees just after 9:00 pm local time (1300 GMT) on Monday, Xinhua said.

"Rain poured down on the right side of the boat, many rooms were flooded," Zhang said, according to Xinhua. "Even if the windows were shut, water leaked through."

Passengers began taking soaked quilts and TV sets into the ship's hall around 9:20 pm (1320 GMT), Xinhua quoted Zhang as saying, in what appeared to be an attempt to keep the items dry.

Passengers seemed to have little warning before the ship sank minutes later with Zhang recalling he had "30 seconds to grab a life jacket".

Chinese relatives of passengers on the

 Dongfangzhixing ferry which sank en

 route from the eastern city of Nanjing to

 the southwestern city of Chongqing, react

 as they wait for information at a hotel

in Nanjing, on June 2, 2015 (AFP Photo)

The captain and chief engineer, who were among the few survivors and being questioned by police, both reportedly said it had been caught in a freak "cyclone".

Foreign journalists were barred from coming closer than about two kilometers from the centre of rescue efforts, which appeared to be a hive of activity where army personnel had parked trucks and pitched tents.

As heavy rains continued to hit the area, an AFP photographer saw more than a dozen ambulances driving away from the rescue area, and at least two body bags apparently containing dead passengers.

CCTV said the 250-feet (76.5-metre) long vessel had floated three kilometres (1.9 miles) down river after it capsized in Jianli county, part of the central province of Hubei.

Teams of police worked to get small motorboats in the water to search for survivors in the rain, while other emergency personnel looked on from the shore.

Xinhua reported that three divers found one 21-year-old man in a small compartment Tuesday afternoon, saying he was given diving apparatus and able to swim out by himself.

State broadcaster CCTV showed rescue workers carrying an elderly woman on a stretcher, adding that another 65-year-old woman was in "good physical condition," after being hauled from the boat.

It also showed Chinese Premier Li Keqiang peering through binoculars and giving instructions at the scene.

A local man surnamed Wang told AFP the storm on Monday night was the worst he had seen in years.

Chinese rescue workers carry a body

from the capsized passenger ship 

Dongfangzhixing which sank in the

Yangtze river in Hubei province on 

June 2, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Johannes Eisele)

'All-out rescue efforts'

Xinhua said an investigation by the ministry of transport had determined the ship was not overloaded and had a sufficient number of life jackets.

There were 458 people on board the Dongfangzhixing when the ship capsized at 9:28 pm, CCTV said, including 406 Chinese passengers, five travel agency workers and 47 crew members.

The vessel was owned by a firm that operates tours in the scenic Three Gorges dam region, some distance from the accident site.

The boat sent no emergency signal and seven people from the boat swam to shore to raise the alarm after it sank, according to reports.

The ship started operations in 1993 and was due to be retired in three years, the 21st Century Business Herald quoted an unnamed former senior executive with the Chongqing Eastern Ship Company as saying.

The accident occurred in the middle reaches of the Yangtze, a wide and rapidly flowing waterway which at 6,300 kilometres is Asia's longest river.

Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier ordered "all-out rescue efforts" to find any survivors.

The Hubei Daily said about 150 boats -- including about 100 fishing vessels -- and more than 3,000 people were involved in the rescue effort, including 140 divers.

A survivor is rescued by divers from the Dongfangzhixing vessel which sank

in the Yangtze river, Hubei province, on June 2, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Distraught relatives of the passengers gathered at a Shanghai travel agency on Tuesday, sobbing and pleading for information on their loved ones' fate.

One man expressed his grief with a tearful apology to his parents, who were among the hundreds of missing.

"I still have so many things I want to tell them. I thought they would come back safe and sound," added the man.

A 64-year-old man surnamed Zhang said he spoke to his wife on the boat Monday evening hours before the accident, and she told him about poor weather and heavy rain.

"I usually call her twice a day. But today, after I heard the news... the phone call never got through," he said.

Costa Concordia captain Schettino sentenced to 16 years

Yahoo – AFP, 11 Feb 2015

Costa Concordia's captain Francesco Schettino arrives in the courthouse for his
 final declaration on the last day of his trial on February 11, 2015 in Grosseto, Italy
(AFP Photo/Alberto Pizzoli)

Grosseto (Italy) (AFP) - An Italian court on Wednesday sentenced Francesco Schettino, the captain of the ill-fated Costa Concordia, to 16 years and one month in prison for his role in the shipwreck that claimed 32 lives.

Schettino, 54, was sentenced at the end of a 19-month trial, three years after the January 2012 disaster, which occurred after the huge cruise ship hit rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio. His conviction is subject to appeal.

An Italian court on Wednesday sentenced Francesco Schettino, the captain of the ill-fated Costa Concordia, to 16 years and one month in prison for his role in the shipwreck that claimed 32 lives.

Schettino, 54, was sentenced at the end of a 19-month trial, three years after the January 2012 disaster, which occurred after the huge cruise ship hit rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio. His conviction is subject to appeal.

The disgraced skipper, who had earlier tearfully appealed to the court for mercy, had been charged with manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship with passengers and crew still on board.

It was not immediately clear which of the various counts he was convicted on.

Prosecutors had sought a total sentence of 26 years and three months.

Schettino was accused during the trial of recklessly steering the giant cruise ship onto the rocks with more than 4,000 people on board, negligently delaying an order to abandon ship and then leaving the ship himself in a cowardly and unprofessional manner.

In his defence, Schettino said his crew was to blame for the collision, that the delayed evacuation might have saved lives and insisted he fell off the tilting boat rather than fleeing in fear.

Schettino had also claimed he was being made a scapegoat for the disaster and had been the victim of a media witch-hunt.

Wrecked Costa Concordia enters Italian port to be scrapped (AFP)

Related Article:

Wrecked Costa Concordia enters Italian port to be scrapped

Ferry disaster survivors describe chaos and panic

Yahoo – AFP, Ljubomir Milasin, 30 Dec 2014

A survivor of the Norman Atlantic hugs her children after arriving at the
 Elefsina military airport in Athens on December 29, 2014 (AFP)

Survivors of the Norman Atlantic ferry disaster described chaos, panic, and anger as they sought to escape the vessel after it burst into flames in stormy weather Sunday.

"It was panic because there were over 400 of us who were all supposed to use the same emergency exit," Greek passenger Urania Thireou told AFP at a hotel in the Italian port city of Brindisi, after waiting 23 hours on the burning ship to be rescued.

"There were crew members around, but even they were panicked (because) it was impossible to organise so many people," Thireou said.

A photo grab from a video by the Marina

 Militare Italiana on December 29, 2014,

shows the rescue operation of passengers

by helicopter from the Norman Atlantic,

adrift in the Adriatic Sea off Albania

She said her own salvation came from feeling "anger that gave me the force to stay alive."

French passenger Philippe Moyses gave an equally emotional account of "terror" amid the disaster, during which he "looked death in the face" in a way that has deeply marked him.

"This morning I got up (after) sleeping like a log, I sat on the edge of the bed, and... I just started crying," Moyses, a 62-year-old resident of Bordeaux, said from his hotel after being among the last passengers lifted by helicopter from the burning ferry.

Thireou said the lack of coordination aboard in responding in the emergency early on was the most critical failing in the catastrophe, which as of Tuesday afternoon had claimed a provisional total of 13 lives.

"At the start, there were people who got into the biggest lifeboat," she told AFP of the amorphous rushing of passengers. "They got it into the water, but we were told afterwards that they were not rescued."

Despite that news and the bleak situation aboard the Norman Atlantic, Thireou says she quickly focused all her energy and emotions on surviving the calamity.

"I wasn't scared of dying then, (and) I understood that I had to remain positive," Thireou says.

"I was also angry, and this anger kept me alive (and) gave me strength, though I lost that courage when night fell."

Look death in the face

Moyses similarly described an atmosphere of growing dread as passengers counted hours ticking by during the long and laborious rescue operation.

"There were 30 men left to evacuate at the end," the Frenchman recalled. "There were flames under the floorboards. I nearly passed out, and they lifted me out by helicopter.

Rescued passenger of the Norman Atlantic 

accident Marko Gondolo, 40, holds his

 daughter Serafina, 5, at the airport in 

Elefsina, Greece, on December 29, 2014

"I'm completely emptied -- it was terrible. But it was when only 30 of us were left that we looked death in the face and said, 'That's it, we're going to make it out of this'," Moyses said, his eyes becoming moist with emotion again.

Moyses, one of ten French passengers on the ferry, paid tribute to the Italian military helicopter pilots who performed rescue flights in the midst of a violent storm, often at night, and at times as heavy black smoke billowed around the ship.

Thireou was also quick to thank rescuers, authorities involved, and in particular "the truck drivers aboard who tried several times, black with smoke, to hook the rescue tug's cable to the ferry."

Two Albanian sailors died when one of those cables snapped during rescue operations.

Wearing Red Cross-supplied slippers because all his luggage was lost in the ferry fire, Moyses said moves were afoot to get him outfitted again.

"I'm going with the (French) ambassador to buy shoes," he said, leaving his hotel to meet with diplomats who have assisted French nationals as they were brought from the ferry back to land.

Related Articles:

Dual criminal investigations launched into Adriatic ferry tragedy

Albanian sailors killed during ferry rescue operation

Burning ferry to be towed to Italy as rescue airlifts continue

Safety standards on passenger ships

Safety standards on passenger ships

Passenger ships are monitored regularly following international standards for the safety of passengers and crew. Minimum standards were put in place more than a century ago, after the sinking of the Titanic.

Deutsche Welle, 29 Dec 2014

When was the first convention for the safety at sea created?

The first convention originated in the wake of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912. An international conference was called in November 1913, aimed at creating international minimum standards for the safety at sea. A first version of the "International Treaty for the Safety of Life at Sea" (SOLAS) was compiled, and has since been repeatedly updated. The London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO) has held responsibility for the treaty since 1960; currently a 1974 version is in place. The IMO depends on mutual decisions by its members, so change often takes quite some time. The most recent amendment entered into force on January 1, 2013.

How are safety regulations monitored?

In 1993, the IMO adopted the International Management Code for the Safe Operations of Ships and for Pollution Prevention (ISM Code). The code defines what needs to be done to guarantee safe operation of a ship. Every ship owner and operator commits to compiling a set of documents known as the Safety Management System (SMS). They are bound to enforce the regulations, and check compliance. As a rule, the state under whose flag the vessel sails authorizes a recognized Classification Society to survey compliance. The Adria Norman Atlantic, which caught fire on Sunday morning, was last inspected five months ago.

When does inspection begin, and what doe monitors check?

The burning Ferry was finally evacuated

Inspection begins with the construction of the ship. The Classification Society checks building materials and components, and watches over the construction the on the wharf. Once the vessel is finished, the rescue and safety technology is tested. After the ship has been cleared, the Classification Society checks it on an annual basis. The state of the ship is thus constantly documented.

What happens after the inspection?

Port State Control gives a ship that meets all the requirements a class "A" document. If there are defects, they are noted in the inspection report along with the measures needed to correct the problems. Finally, the ship's data and the inspection report findings are transmitted to a central electronic data bank in Lisbon. If a ship does not meet the safety requirements, local authorities have the right to prevent it from leaving port. After the cruise liner Costa Concordia ran aground on rocks, numerous major shipping companies committed to stricter self inspection and higher safety standards.

How are safety standards ranked among various states that have ships sailing under their flag?

The Costa Concordia, shipwrecked
off the Italian coast

The Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Port State Control takes care of that. It was created at France's initiative after the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz sank off the coast of Brittany in 1978. The memorandum has 27 signatories. Every year, the Paris MOU specifies the states' safety levels in "white", "grey" and "black" lists. According to the most recent list, published in July, France has the safest ships, followed by Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Germany ranks ninth. The poorest performing flags are the island nation of Dominica, Honduras and the United Republic of Tanzania.

How many passenger ships sank over the past years?

Insurers "Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty" document the loss of 90 passenger ships from 2001to 2012. They didn't all necessarily sink, however: the figure documents their final failure. Losses have dropped significantly in the past eight years. While more than ten ships were lost annually until 2006, that figure decreased to six ships that were written off every year over the past six years.

When a ship threatens to sink - on average, how long does it take to evacuate?

According to the SOLAS accord, lifeboats must be ready to be boarded and launched at the latest 30 minutes after the captain has given the appropriate signal. Within this time frame, they must also reach an acceptable safety distance from the ship in distress. Since 2002, cruise ships must be fully evacuated within 80 minutes. The Adria Norman Atlantic's disaster off the Greek coast shows, however, that this time frame is exceeded many times over if conditions are unfavorable.

Related Article:

Burning ferry to be towed to Italy as rescue airlifts continue

Burning ferry to be towed to Italy as rescue airlifts continue

A ferry which set on fire during its journey from Greece to Italy is to be towed to Italy's mainland. One person has died, with hundreds more are still stranded on the ship in the Adriatic Sea.

Deutsche Welle, 28 Dec 2014

Italian officials said the Noram atlantic ferry would probably be taken to either Brindisi or Otranto on Italy's southern coast once towing cables could be securely attached.

Airlifts were also set to continue throughout Sunday night whilst the boat was towed towards mainland Italy.

The Italian navy said that two Italian air force helicopters, one Greek Superpuma helicopter, and an Italian plane were continuing to take part in the rescue, pulling up passengers in small groups. Other aircraft and 10 ships were also taking part in the operation in support roles.

Throughout Sunday, firefighting vessels and helicopters from Greece and Italy were sent to the scene as part of a rescue operation coordinated by Italy. Efforts were hindered, however, by extreme weather conditions.

One death

Italian Coast Guard official Giovanni Pettorino confirmed earlier on Sunday that one person had died during the rescue operation and another had been injured - both of whom were transported by Italian rescuers to the country's mainland.

The Italian-flagged ANEK Lines ferry is thought to have set ablaze after a fire broke out in the lower deck garage of the boat in the early hours of Sunday morning. At the time the ferry was about 44 nautical miles off the coast of Corfu, after leaving the Greek port of Patras en route to Ancona in Italy.

Intense heat

Hundreds were left stranded on smoke-filled top decks as the fire spread throughout the vessel. Passengers contacted Greek television stations via mobile phone to describe their horror as high winds, rain and violent seas lashed the burning ferry. Various passengers also reported that the heat was so intense that shoes had started to melt.

In total, there were 478 passengers and crew aboard the ship, around 234 of whom were said to be Greek. According to the German Foreign Office, 18 Germans were also on board.

ksb/es (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)

Related Articles:

Ferry disaster survivors describe chaos and panic

Dual criminal investigations launched into Adriatic ferry tragedy

Albanian sailors killed during ferry rescue operation

Burning ferry to be towed to Italy as rescue airlifts continue

Safety standards on passenger ships

World's biggest cruise ship to dock in Rotterdam

DutchNews.nl, Tuesday 23 September 2014

The massive Oasis of the Seas in a company photograph

The world’s biggest cruise ship, the Oasis of the Seas, is due to arrive in Rotterdam port next Monday night after a week long cruise from the Spanish city of Malaga.

The ship is 60 metres wide and can carry 6,360 passengers plus nearly 2,400 crew. It is owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises.

Meanwhile, sister ship Quantum of the Seas on Monday left its wharf in the German port of Papenburg for the Dutch North Sea port of Eemshaven.

The 348-metre-long ship was towed down the river Ems by two tugs – a journey which involved keeping the water level in the river artificially high. From Eemshaven, the ship - the world's third biggest cruise liner - will undergo a first short ‘test drive’, owner Royal Caribbean Cruises said.

Wrecked Costa Concordia enters Italian port to be scrapped

Yahoo – AFP, July 27, 2014

Wrecked Costa Concordia enters Italian port to be scrapped (AFP)

Genoa (Italy) (AFP) - The wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship limped Sunday into the Italian port of Genoa to be scrapped two and a half years after it capsized in a tragedy that claimed 32 lives.

The hulking vessel about twice the size of the Titanic was towed into the northern port after a four-day, 280 kilometre (175 mile) journey from the disaster site off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

"We can finally breathe a sigh of relief," Italy's Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti told journalists.

Fears the damaged hull would break up under the strain, spilling toxic waste into Europe's biggest marine sanctuary, proved unfounded, and dolphins joined the convoy of environmental experts in welcoming the ship into Genoa.

The once-luxury liner arrived overnight and weighed anchor around two nautical miles (3.6 kilometres) off shore, where engineers attached it to a series of tugboats which manoeuvred it into Genoa's Voltri port at 1000 GMT.

Civil protection agency chief Franco Gabrielli told journalists a high wind was slowing the delicate operation and the ship was not expected to be secured until around 1400 GMT.

Once it is fastened in place, interior furnishings and fittings will be stripped out of the ship to make it light enough to tow into the scrapping area, where it will be divided into three parts for dismantling.

Crowds of curious locals gathered near the port on the outskirts of Genoa at first light, eager to see the remains of the battered ship, which crashed into rocks off Giglio island in January 2012 with 4,229 people from 70 countries on board.

Bad omen

Built in 2005 in the Sestri Ponente Finantieri yard in Genoa, the Concordia was the largest Italian cruise ship in history at the time of its launch -- but was considered unlucky by some from the start.

At a floating ceremony in 2006 attended by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone -- Pope Benedict XVI's number two -- the bottle of champagne swung agaist the hull failed to smash, a bad omen in seagoing lore.

Images of the vast vessel toppled on its side off Giglio in January 2012 went viral around the world, and its captain Francesco Schettino was dubbed Italy's "most hated man" by local media after he escaped in a lifeboat while terrified passengers threw themselves into the icy sea.

Schettino is currently on trial for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, and abandoning the vessel before all passengers had evacuated.

The salvage operation to recover the Concordia was the biggest ever attempted and is expected to cost in the region of 1.5 billion euros ($2.01 billion).

For Genoa -- former maritime power and home to explorer Christopher Columbus -- the contract to dismantle the ship is a welcome boost in a period of economic crisis, creating hundreds of jobs in the city for a 22-month period.

The remains of the 114,500-tonnes Concordia will not simply be thrown away: over 80 percent of it is expected to be recycled or reused.

Between 40,000 and 50,000 tonnes of steel will be melted down and reused in the construction industry, while undamaged copper wiring, plumbing, plastics, machinery and furniture will recovered and sold on.

Personal belongings recovered on the lower decks will be returned to owners while items such as the ship's piano -- which was being played as the ship hit the rocks -- may end up in a museum.

One of the first tasks will be to search for the body of one of the victims, Indian waiter Russel Rebello, whose remains were never found and may have been trapped in a part of the vessel previously inaccessible to salvage crew.

Costa Concordia successfully refloated

Officials say operation in Giglio has proceeded without a hitch in preparation for cruise liner being towed away

theguardian.com, Agencies in Giglio, Monday 14 July 2014

The Costa Concordia after it was refloated off the island of Giglio in Italy.
Photograph: Alessandro La Rocca/AP

The shipwrecked Costa Concordia has been successfully refloated in preparation for towing it away for scrapping.

Authorities expressed satisfaction that the operation to float the Concordia from an underwater platform had proceeded without a hitch early on Monday. The cruise liner struck a reef in January 2012 and capsized, killing 32 people.

Air was pumped slowly into 30 tanks or "sponsons" attached to both sides of the 290-metre, 114,500-tonne Concordia to expel the water inside, raising it two metres (6.5 feet) off the artificial platform it has rested on since it was righted in September.

It will now be towed away from the shore and moored using anchors and cables. Thirty-six steel cables and 56 chains will hold the sponsons in place.

Italy's environmental minister told reporters that the operation would only be finished when the ship was successfully transported to the port of Genoa for scrapping. Towing is set for later this month.

The area is in one of Europe's largest marine sanctuaries – a haven for dolphins and whales – and environmentalists have warned about the dangers of toxic waste or fuel leaking into the sea as the ship is raised and towed.

The Concordia – twice as big as the Titanic – crashed off Giglio on the night of 13 January 2012, forcing many of its 4,229 passengers and crew from 70 countries to jump into the sea as lifeboat pulleys failed.

The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, is on trial for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the vessel before all passengers had evacuated.

The Giglio shopkeeper Silvia said residents were looking forward to "waving farewell to the rusting hulk blighting our once-pristine shoreline".

The wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship during an operation to refloat

the boat on July 14, 2014 off Giglio Island, Italy (AFP Photo/Vincenzo Pinto)

Related Articles:

Italy cruise ship toxins threaten wildlife: activists

Costa Concordia floats for first time since shipwreck (+Video)

Costa Concordia upright after unique salvage bid