Costa Concordia to be removed whole, U.S. company gets contract

The contract has been awarded to remove the sunken Italian cruise liner, the Costa Concordia from rocks off of the island of Giglio and an American company, Titan Salvage, will head the operation. The owners of the ship said it will be removed whole.

Titan Salvage is a Florida based salvage company that has done over 350 salvage jobs around the world. They will be working with an Italian company, Micoperi, to in essence refloat the Costa Concordia and take her to an undetermined port in Italy; it's not known what will then happen to the ship but the likelihood is she will be scrapped, her remaining usable metal and other parts sold. Costa Concordia: Oil removed by Smit Salvage There were 4,229 passengers and crew onboard when the ship went down on Jan. 13 after the captain, Francesco Schettino, took the liner too close to the shore of the Italian island. The 290 metres long liner, with a gross tonnage of 114,500, hit rocks and listed, partially sinking. Thirty-two people are believed to have died; 30 bodies have been recovered. Schettino is under house arrest at his home near Naples, awaiting trial on multiple charges, including causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship. The final company of 6 original companies in competition with Titan Salvage was Smit Salvage, the Dutch company which safely removed the 2,300 tonnes of heavy fuel and more than 200 tonnes of diesel oil from the ship. The area the ship sunk in is a marine sanctuary with dolphins, many species of whales, porpoises and other marine life and the removal of the oil was considered crucial. Work to begin removing the ship will begin in May and is expected to take about a year.