Work on refloating Costa Concordia ongoing as giant box attached

Italian and American companies, Micoperi and Titan Salvage, continue working on refloating the Costa Concordia. Last week the first of 30 giant 'boxes' was attached to a side of the doomed cruise ship.

There will be 15 of these hollow boxes on either side of the Costa Concordia. Once all 30 are in place a series of cables and pulleys will lift the boat upwards and set it in a floating position, with the hollow boxes enabling it to occur. The 114,500 tonnes ship was taken too close to the shore of the Italian island of Giglio on Friday, Jan. 13, 2012 and hit a reef. A massive hole was cut into the side and it began filling with water, listing over with 65 percent of the Costa Concordia becoming submerged. Francesco Schettino in pretrial hearing The tragedy took the lives of 32 of the over 4,200 passengers and crew onboard, including a 5-year-old girl; two bodies have yet to be recovered. It is alleged that at fault for the disaster was the captain, Francesco Schettino, for ordering the ship to divert from its course and move close to Giglio to 'salute' a former colleague living on Giglio. Schettino was in court in Grosetto, Italy last week in a pretrial hearing as authorities seek to charge him with manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship. Five other employees of Costa Cruises may also be charged with various offences. Once refloated the ship will be towed to the nearby port of Piombino for scrapping.