Costa Concordia Refloat Delayed

The salvage master issued a statement at noon (local time on Giglio, 6am Eastern time in the US) saying strong winds were intermittently delaying work on the final attachment of the starboard sponsons to Costa Concordia. Despite this, they are continuing to work as they can. At that point there were still two chains and four cables to be connected to three of the starboard sponsons (S4, S5, S18). The chain to sponson S12 had been connected, and they were expecting work securing that sponson to be completed within a few hours.

At 8:30pm local time, the salvage master was reporting that work on sponson S12 was complete and it was being lowered into its final position. There were still two chains and four cables to be connected to starboard sponsons S4, S5 and S18. Work will continue as weather conditions permit.

Titan Micoperi now admits weather and sea conditions have impacted the schedule by delaying the necessary attachment work. The refloat has obviously been delayed, and will now possibly begin on Friday. Technicians are still working toward a departure of the ship from Giglio on Monday, July 21, but they admit that could now slip to Tuesday, July 22.

Diver under Costa Concordia yesterday working with chains and cables to secure starboard sponsons

Photo courtesy of Costa Crocerie. All rights reserved. May not be copied or used without permission.