The operation to refloat the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner has begun on Monday at Giglio Island in Italy.
The salvage team started lifting the huge vessel from its partially submerged position shortly after 6:00a.m.(0500GMT) local time, in an unprecedented effort that involves some 500 workers from 26 nationalities and requires considerable security measures.
At midmorning, the vessel was already able "to partially float in an autonomous way" about 1 meter off the platforms, the team in charge of the operation underlined as a sign the works were proceeding positively.
The Concordia is 290 meters long and weigh 114,500 tons. In first phase, its wreck has to be slowly lifted two meters off six submerged artificial platforms, on which the ship has rested since it was put completely upright last September.
It will then be moved some 30 meters east from its current location, farther from the island's shores, in order to be completely refloated. Once this phase is completed, the ship will be towed away to the northern port of Genoa for dismantling, likely later this month.
The entire refloating operation at Giglio island is expected to last six to seven days, but the first phase underway should be completed in six to eight hours, the rescue team said, and is therefore expected to end by Monday evening.
According to authorities, this is also the most risky stage.
"The first phase of the operation is the most dangerous one, because the vessel has to be detached from the platforms and this is a very complex work," chief of Italy's Civil Protection Franco Gabrielli explained.
According to the South African senior salvage master, Nick Sloane, the major risk would be "for the ship to bend as it is being raised, or for the chains underneath to snap".
Once it has been lifted two meters off the platforms, some tugboats will drag the wreck away from the shores. There, if everything works properly, the ship will be moored securely and the rescue team would proceed with the other phases needed for the ship to be towed.
The Costa/Carnival Company sounded confident over the work in progress on Monday, and its senior engineer, Franco Porcellacchia, told local media the final departure of the shipwreck might even be anticipated to July 19th from the scheduled July 21st.
The Costa Concordia capsized in January 2012 off the tiny Tuscany island of Giglio. The luxury cruise liner hit rocks during the night with more than 4,200 people on board. Thirty-two people drowned in the attempts to reach the land. A Spanish diver also died earlier this year while working on a deck of the ship.
The vessel's captain, Francesco Schettino, is currently on trial for manslaughter, causing the shipwreck, and abandoning ship during evacuation.