Cruise Ship Down: Saving Concordia (2013) - full transcript
The Costa Concordia.
Longer than the Titanic,
with twice as many decks.
One of the world's most
luxurious cruise ships.
Exit the other side, please!
Exit the other side!
On the night of January 13, 2012,
near Italy's tuscan coast,
she becomes the largest
passenger shipwreck in history.
30 people are dead.
Two are still missing.
Now the world's best marine salvage team
faces mission impossible.
They'll only have one chance
to raise the massive ship
that is teetering precariously
over a deep-sea drop-off.
Senior salvage master Nick Sloane
is in charge of it all.
- This is Mr. Sloane.
- Hi, Mr. Sloane.
You have to live and die by your decisions.
Will Sloane and his team
manage to right the ship
without triggering an
environmental disaster?
Will the missing victims be found?
This girl survived,
but her mother is among the missing.
Now she shares her
mother's last known moments,
for the first time, with her father.
Woman, translated: We heard
the alarm to abandon ship.
We all held hands,
then we went to the lifeboat deck.
Through the eyes of survivors
and the skills of the engineers,
this is the untold story of
raising the Costa Concordia.
9:00 P.M., January 13, 2012.
The Costa Concordia is just three hours
into her weekly cruise
around the Mediterranean.
The huge vessel powers
toward the Italian island of Giglio
at a speed of 16 knots.
On board, the Concordia's
4,200 passengers and crew
enjoy the floating pleasure palace.
They can choose from
one of her five restaurants,
or enjoy a drink in any of her 13 bars.
Bingo is running on deck 5.
Stefania Vincenzi, her mother Maria Grazia,
and a friend, luisa versi,
sit down to dinner
in the Milano restaurant on deck 3.
Stefania Vincenzi, translated:
It was a beautiful evening.
My mother was celebrating
her 50th birthday.
Exquisite meals
flow out of the ship's kitchens
with factory-line precision.
But this typical evening of indulgence
is about to be cut short.
While the passengers eat,
the ship strays dangerously close to shore,
headed straight for a rocky outcrop.
It was a loud
screeching, like "eeeerrrrrrrr."
And then a huge crash
and almost like an explosion.
It sounded like a freight train
and that metal was just
rubbing up against metal.
And then the ship
began to list quite heavily.
Everything is sliding off the tables,
people are screaming...
- The lights went out.
- And the lights went out.
And that really caused panic.
Screaming and running and falling...
Exit the other side, please!
Exit the other side!
Everyone's trying to run out the main door.
The largest Italian
cruise ship ever designed
is going down.
Stefania Vincenzi remembers
every minute of that night.
We stayed seated at our table
because the people were panicked.
We preferred to stay calm and stay seated,
also because the ship was already tilting.
The waitress for our table began to cry.
She collapsed.
My mother consoled her
and told her everything would be ok.
She had a very reassuring
gaze, especially for me.
Those were the only eyes
that were able to calm me down.
So, I wasn't agitated at all that evening.
Thousands of tons of seawater
flood the engine room,
and the great ship loses power.
It's chaos,
it's terrifying,
and within minutes,
fear and confusion turn to mass panic.
There were people
pushing and crushing people.
When you have these situations of danger,
unfortunately the crowds are uncontainable.
A series of horn blasts or alarms
is the international
signal to abandon ship.
The alarm went off to abandon ship.
Everyone was talking,
saying, "maybe it's just shallow water.
Maybe the ship will stabilize."
Instead, we began to hear the alarms.
Mama said that there must be seven blasts
with the last one long.
Everything fell silent.
And we started counting the blasts.
We heard the seventh alarm.
It had a prolonged blast.
We looked into each other's
eyes and said, "here we go."
When they finally lowered us down,
they still had trouble releasing us.
And at this point you have to remember,
the ship is leaning over us.
You have this huge
structure just leaning over you,
and if you can't release your lifeboat...
It would have come down upon us.
Yeah.
Stefania and her mother
get in line for a lifeboat on deck 4,
but it fills up before they can board.
Her mother Maria
announces she's returning to
their cabin, two decks below.
Mama wanted to get a lifejacket
because it was cold
and because her friend
Louisa didn't know how to swim.
If we looked up, we
see the ship was on this angle,
and there's all people
on the bow of the ship,
yelling, "help! Help!"
Infrared footage
from the rescue helicopters
shows the escape ladder at the stern
and some of the survivors
swimming the 20 yards to shore.
Stefania does as her mother tells her
and boards another lifeboat.
I tried to call my
mother to see where she was.
She said that she was on a lifeboat,
and that she was arriving.
I said, "when you arrive,
call me and tell me what
part of the port you're in."
But that call never came.
It seems we've collided with an island.
The whole city's here to greet us, yeah.
Many who reach shore
wait for news of their loved ones.
The tiny island town
is flooded with thousands
of desperate refugees
from the disaster.
This is no... No joke.
Oh, my goodness.
Locals become heroes that night.
Families open their homes
and hearts to strangers.
Many passengers make
their way to the church.
Man, translated: Here's
where those people are.
Also here.
There were people with their lifejackets.
And they were waiting for
someone to do something.
I came and opened the church,
and they started to come in.
Everyone was here and here.
The guy who was soaking
wet was sitting here.
There were the children
who arrived in the beginning
who were cold.
Those still on board the doomed ship
could see the shore,
creating a false sense of security.
We could just jump off and swim.
At 11 P.M.,
Stefania's mother,
Maria, calls her husband,
but he doesn't hear the phone.
Maria calls a family friend next,
who hears Louisa cry,
"I don't know how
to swim. Help me."
My mother said,
"don't worry. You
can hold on to me.
I will take care of you."
And then he heard, "we're
sliding into the water,"
and a splash, as if the
phone was falling into the sea.
The body of Maria's friend, Louisa,
would later be found with other victims.
But Stefania's mother is
never heard from again,
and her fate is a mystery.
In the morning,
the Costa Concordia lies on her side
near porto Giglio.
The coast guard and fire rescue
start searching for anyone still aboard.
A local restaurant owner
displays the first photo of the rescue
that flashed around the world.
Man, translated: This photo
was requested by the firemen
who went to recover the bodies.
30 people will be confirmed dead,
with two still missing:
Stefania's mother
and a young waiter from
India, Russell Rubello.
Relatives fear the worst,
but there can't be closure
until the wreck is righted
and the submerged decks
are completely searched.
Almost two years later,
the 114,000-ton ship,
with another 60,000 tons of contents,
is collapsing from its own weight.
It has become an environmental hazard,
threatening the entire coastline.
The Costa Concordia must be removed.
If it was an empty shell,
the salvage crew could simply cut her up.
But because the ship is
packed with personal effects
and possibly the remains of two people,
that isn't an option.
There's only one plan:
Pull the Concordia
upright and tow her away.
But the great ship
is perched on top of two
undersea granite pinnacles.
One wrong move will twist her in two,
or send her spinning into the abyss.
But they have to try.
After more than a year of research,
experts came to a shocking conclusion:
It's now or never.
The Concordia may not
survive another winter intact.
She's an environmental time bomb.
Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah, you got a crew
change in 10, 15 minutes?
Senior salvage master Nick Sloane
has tackled some of the
world's toughest marine fixes,
like huge oil tankers snapped in half
by waves off of South Africa's coast.
Depending on the weather,
that looks more sheltered down aft.
But this one is beyond compare.
Then when you stand on board,
you see how absolutely big it is,
and you really realize
what you've got yourself into.
Two things make it particularly difficult.
One is the size of the
ship, and then the location.
So if you look at Giglio,
the location where
she sat on the two reefs,
and you combine the two assets together,
it's just off the scale.
Ok, let's get ready for deck.
These guys are a rare breed.
They can mobilize within hours,
ready to attack sudden disasters.
Now they're taking on the
most challenging wreck removal
ever attempted.
Righting the Concordia
will require nearly 500
experts from 24 nations.
Once upright,
she will be refloated and
towed to a shipyard in July.
We have one of the largest salvage teams
ever put together in history.
Divers, welders, engineers,
fabricators, mariners...
Just everything you can think of.
It's huge.
Nick Sloane and his team
have put 18 months of backbreaking work
and could spend as much as $800 million
on the gamble that they can
pry the great ship off the rocks.
They'll get only one shot to do it right.
Salvage master Nick Sloane
is about to attempt an engineering miracle:
Raising the Costa Concordia
from its watery grave.
It's called the parbuckling project.
Parbuckling is a method
used to retrieve a sunken vessel
by using slings and weight to roll her.
On one side,
hydraulic Jacks will keep
her from sliding down...
While powerful Jacks on the opposite side
rotate her upright.
You can't really go
into a hardware store and say,
"I want one Costa
Concordia parbuckling kit,"
because they wouldn't
really know what you mean.
So everything that we have
has been designed and built by the team.
But the process has never been applied
to a passenger ship as large as Concordia.
The preparation alone is extraordinary.
First, the team fills in
beneath her sagging midsection
with 20,000 tons of giant cement bags
to support her tremendous weight.
The bags also level the sloping sea floor
and will help distribute the
massive forces on the ship.
Then, they weld 10-story ballast tanks,
called sponsons,
on her exposed side.
These will be filled with water
during the latter stage of the parbuckle
to assist the rotation...
And then emptied to add buoyancy
and to control her touchdown.
Next, they encircle
her with hydraulic Jacks
capable of shifting over 200,000 tons
of dead weight upright.
Nick Sloane and his team
are as ready as they can be.
How do you feel?
Excited.
Yeah, we're looking
forward to getting her upright.
It's been a long 18 months.
And it's about time that we got her up.
The stakes are high for the engineers
and the locals.
A day before it's a go,
the people of Giglio call
in some help from above.
Local churches pray for success.
Priest, translated:
In particular,
we ask him to guide the hand of those
who are carrying out
the recovery of the ship.
It's a high-risk operation.
The wreck is so fragile
that Sloane has only
one shot to get it right.
If the ship breaks apart,
the two missing victims
might never be found
and the coast will be hopelessly polluted.
An engineering project this size
requires attention to every minute detail.
Sloane tested his approach
to righting the Concordia
through computer simulations.
But at first, all this advanced
technology brought bad news.
Just pulling the ship up
as is would end in disaster.
It looks like a bad car crash in the model.
And then it told us the bow
and the stern would fall off
if we didn't do corrective action.
The original simulations
identified two critical challenges.
First, the bow,
overhanging the support platforms
by nearly a football field,
could collapse and break off.
In the bow area it was far too deep.
So the water depth just
goes all the way down
to 80, 100 meters.
We could not build a platform there.
So they created a buoyant neck brace
to support the bow and spine of the ship.
And it's like a casualty
with a spinal injury on the ground.
You hold the neck and
you just rotate them slowly
to minimize any twist in the spine.
It all comes down to weight and power.
But when one problem is solved,
another appears.
The second challenge is impossible
to completely troubleshoot in advance.
Nick knows the Concordia is lodged on rocks
that punched through her hull.
What he can't know
is how tightly those rocks
might hold her to the sea floor
as they attempt the lift.
The breakout force
depends on the profile of the rock.
So if the rock is nice and smooth,
we can break it off
without too much friction.
But if they have a knuckle
which is trapped inside on the side shelf,
then you have to break
it and tear it off that.
If they manage to pull Concordia free
from that rocky grip,
the next problem is the
sheer weight of the wreck.
The ship sank with unused food and supplies
for all 4,200 people on board.
Sloane must factor all of this weight,
along with that of the actual ship,
into the force required to
raise her from the sea floor.
The moment she lifts up,
all the weight gets transferred
onto the starboard bilge keel,
and that weight wants to crush the ship.
It is not designed to
take that sort of load.
With all the internal
furniture, the dining rooms...
Everything's fallen down to the lower side
and absorbed water.
All the passengers' hand luggage,
carpets, mattresses...
Everything's absorbed water
and fallen over to the
starboard side of the shell,
so that makes it more difficult
because we're not sure exactly
where the center of gravity is.
Nick and his team must plan for both known
and unforeseeable trouble.
They designed a steel platform
to be the Concordia's
new level resting site,
hoping to prevent the ship
from sliding into the abyss.
Nick believes this will keep
the middle of the wreck...
Her weakest point...
From collapsing during the rotation.
Remotely operated vehicles, or rovs,
with high-resolution cameras,
have been Nick's eyes
during the installation of the platform.
Tomorrow, they'll provide
real-time underwater monitoring
during the parbuckling.
The moment of truth is just hours away.
Will Nick Sloane's grand and extreme plan
for raising the Concordia succeed?
Or will the fragile wreck break in two,
creating an environmental disaster?
Since the wreck of the Costa Concordia
in January 2012,
the tiny island of Giglio,
off Italy's tuscan coast,
has been transformed into
a hub of engineering muscle.
Porto Giglio's population
of 500 has doubled,
due to the huge salvage team
that works around the clock.
There's activity in the
harbor day and night.
Next to the battered and broken Concordia
is a floating dormitory,
where most of the hundreds of workers live.
The 18 months of effort will
culminate in the ultimate test,
in just 24 hours.
If the parbuckle succeeds,
then life will slowly return to normal
on the sleepy Italian island.
But if the ship breaks apart,
this part of the Mediterranean
will be an environmental disaster zone.
The Concordia already
shows signs of disintegration,
so the salvage crew
knows it's now or never.
Nick heads out for one final check
before tomorrow's big event.
The ballast tanks have
been precisely adjusted
to control the water intake and outflow
critical in the operation.
Computers that control the holdback Jacks
have been tested.
22 massive chains
and the steel cables
that encircle the wreck
are securely in place.
And the powerful hydraulic Jacks
on the seaward side are ready.
All of the engineering
machinery is poised for action.
So, Nick, are we
ready? - We're ready.
Nick Sloane has the
weight of the world on his shoulders,
but he doesn't let it show.
Final checks
are going to take up
the tension this evening,
and then get ready for the morning...
How do you feel?
Good. Very good.
Very confident.
Media from around the world
have descended on the
narrow streets of Giglio
for the big event.
Mostly the weather.
Sloane has reason to worry,
because offshore,
it's getting ugly quickly.
Violent electrical storms
are common in the
Mediterranean during Autumn,
and this one looks menacing.
5:45 A.M.
The raising of the Costa Concordia
is set to start.
But the rain and lightning
have knocked out the
entire electronics system.
One of the control
panels has short-circuited.
These electronics are the only way
Nick can control the
Jacks and buoyancy tanks.
The disaster threatens to delay or even end
the project before it begins.
But Sloane is a meticulous planner.
His team has back-up ready to install.
While the crew makes the switch,
a barge moves the portable
control room into place.
Nick Sloane heads out to take command.
Swapping out the circuit boards
has caused a three-hour delay,
but now they're ready.
With a simple twirl of his
hand, Nick signals, "let's do it."
It's 9:00 A.M.
After millions of hours
from hundreds of experts,
the fate of the Concordia
is now in the hands of twelve people.
Go down to the touchdown point.
Ok, do we synchronize our watches?
08:59. What's your time?
09:00 hours.
They will scrutinize
every second of the parbuckle.
But their ears are just
as important as their eyes
at this early stage.
Underwatericrophones
will pick up the battered ship's sounds
as the Jacks start to lift her.
A loud groan would be
the first sign of trouble.
We're at 2,200 and we're going up...
36 hydraulic Jacks
start to tighten the cables.
Tons of pulling capacity go to work.
The raising of Concordia begins.
But while all eyes and
ears in the command center
are focused on the ship,
another group back on shore
is monitoring the
progress in a different way,
using technologies that
can literally see into the ship.
These yellow elements are the Jacks,
and we can see they are a yellow color,
meaning a higher temperature.
So the parbuckling has started.
Dr. Nicola Casagli
is a geology professor at
the university of Florence.
We can move to the next installation.
His team rushed to the wreck site
a mere four days after the accident,
deploying high-end laser
and infrared cameras.
They've been monitoring it
continuously every hour since.
They're used to analyzing volcanoes,
but their expertise will help ensure
the parbuckle proceeds safely.
Here there is a 3-dimensional laser scanner
and a thermal camera.
The lasers detect
every movement of the wreck,
and the data is sent
to the Italian authorities
and to Sloane.
As the rotation puts extreme
stress on the Concordia,
they're able to see any
deformation to the ship
in real time.
The white elements is a point.
For each point we know
exactly the topographical position.
They check 3 million points on the ship
simultaneously.
At first, progress is
invisible to the naked eye,
but a monumental force
is rotating the Concordia's massive frame.
Every member of the team
is scouring the incoming
data for any signs of trouble.
If the wreck starts to
twist or break apart,
they may have only seconds to react.
The Jacks are straining to
pull the ship off the rocks.
But until we actually see her lift,
we won't know what that force is.
So that's the unknown factor.
The higher that gets,
the more nervous we get.
We got up to 4,000 tons,
5,000 tons, 6,000 tons.
Then, Nick sees a serious problem.
With growing alarm, he realizes the Jacks
are already over 65%
of their maximum power.
They're at more than 6,500,
and still the ship won't budge.
Channel 7.
For a heart-stopping moment,
Nick fears the Concordia is
permanently stuck on the rocks.
Finally, at 6,800 tons...
Movement.
The ship has pulled free.
People were pretty quiet there
because that was now on
the more pessimistic side
of the way we were expecting it to be,
but at 6,800, then she came up.
The university team on land
confirms that the ship is slowly rotating,
and just as important,
all parts of the ship are moving together.
The rotation is going well
because all the points show
the same amount of displacement.
So the ship is moving like a rigid body,
without internal deformation.
Everything is going smooth.
Tourists and press hold a collective breath
while unseen but powerful forces
slowly raise the massive ship.
But Sloane's team still
has a long way to go
before they are assured of success.
The massive shipwreck
could break apart at any time.
In theory, everything has
been taken into consideration:
The weight of the ship,
the 400,000 tons of water inside...
Even the force when that water runs out.
And the friction from
pulling up and off the rocks.
Lasers show all is going as planned.
If onlookers expect instant drama,
they're disappointed.
But Nick's team has to go slow and steady
if they have any hope
of keeping the ship intact.
After an hour, the ship has
rotated less than one degree.
We say one hour to break her off the rock,
another 5 1/2 to 6 hours to
get to where gravity takes over,
one hour to drop her
to the 10-degree level,
and then another hour just
to put her on the platform
as gently as possible.
I have new data.
We are at 2 degrees and a half now.
They are proceeding very quickly.
I give you in inches.
35 inch.
10 inch per hour.
Thermal cameras and radar reveal
that all of the steel cables
are turning at exactly the same speed
as they pull the Concordia.
Now the pace of the parbuckle
increases to 2 degrees per hour,
and the gruesome
sea-logged side of the ship
slowly emerges.
The algae-darkened hull is exposed to air
for the first time in almost two years.
Just when success seems certain,
Sloane's vital monitors suddenly go blank.
Without the input from
cameras throughout the ship,
Nick's team is working blind.
Sloane can't solve the problem,
and he can't even see what's wrong.
Yeah, please can
you request to rov pilot...
The team launches a small camera drone
to investigate.
At this critical stage of the parbuckle,
they must fix this problem,
or the salvage operation can't continue.
The raising of the Costa Concordia
has hit a snag,
and it could be a fatal one.
Critical monitors are down.
The drone shows that steel cables
have become twisted with the data lines.
The operation can't continue
unless they can get these
vital monitors working.
Sloane sends a crew
out to the unstable wreck
to fix the problem.
The news is mixed...
They can see and correct the problem,
but it will cost the
operation at least an hour,
and the longer the ship is frozen in place,
the greater danger it could break apart.
Finally, they manage to
restore the electronic feed.
Nick hits restart.
Yeah, just confirm all
personnel off the Concordia.
Ok, we're going up 10%.
For residents on shore,
watching the Costa Concordia slowly emerge
brings back the horror of the disaster.
It could have been even worse.
One local, settimo butelli,
saw the Concordia
barreling toward the island
on January 13, 2012.
He describes how wind and currents
swung the mortally wounded ship around
and pushed it toward Giglio's harbor,
instead of out to sea.
Settimo, translated: It was a
miracle because if the wind,
instead of blowing from the east,
it came from the south,
the ship would have gone into open waters,
and they would all be dead.
For Stefania Vincenzi,
the raising of the Concordia is
a last hope to find her mother,
who is missing and presumed dead.
Stefania and her father, elio,
are still haunted by
the events of that night.
As they desperately
sought a way off the ship,
her mother decided to return
to their cabin for a lifejacket.
I said, "no, you can't go to the cabin,"
but she continued to
insist, so I grabbed her arm.
She said, "I need to
get a lifejacket for Louisa
because she doesn't
know how to swim."
When she went down the
stairs, I looked at her and she said,
"come on, I'll give you a kiss."
I said "go! Give
me the kiss later."
Mama turned to go down
the steps and smiled,
and she disappeared.
Stefania never saw her mother again.
While they don't know exactly
what happened to Maria,
they suspect she became
trapped when the ship tipped over.
Here's where people disembarked before us,
and they were given blankets.
The ship was still not completely inclined.
Elio, translated: I
never understood
why there were no images
of the last collapse of the boat
when mama died.
How is it possible that
no one filmed the moment?
Plus, she knew how to swim well.
She was a very good swimmer.
Possibly...
i don't know.
It could be that she was trapped,
that she couldn't get out,
and water came in.
Both she and her father
hope for closure once
the Concordia is upright
and divers can search for Maria.
Night falls,
but they must go on.
The hull has been under extreme loads
longer than planned,
and structural failure is
just around the corner.
Under halogen work lights,
a giant cave of shredded metal
slowly emerges from the inky black water.
Deck by deck,
the corpse of the wreck slowly emerges
throughout the long night.
At 4:00 A.M.,
19 long hours after he launched the effort,
the Concordia is upright and secure
on the underwater platforms.
Ships' horns announce the victory
to the waiting press and
the residents of Giglio.
The salvage master finally heads to shore.
Bravo!
With the rainstorm
and everything we had the night before,
there were some challenges.
Electronics on board got wiped out.
So, yeah, those things happen in salvage.
So there's been no gas,
there's been no pollution.
She's completely upright.
How do you feel
now? - A lot of relief.
What is your next step?
Well, we're going to have a beer tonight,
or this morning.
Nick, congratulations!
- Thanks, man.
- You are the best!
The wrecked Concordia is now afloat.
But the job isn't over.
Police must now search
for Maria Grazia Trecarichi
and the young waiter, Russell Rubello,
whose bodies may still be trapped inside.
Dawn reveals
how much this once glorious,
luxury cruise ship has changed.
In the Costa Concordia's glory days,
a week-long Mediterranean cruise
would cost several
hundred dollars, or more.
Now that the extent of
her damage is revealed,
it seems like a miracle that
so many escaped that night.
From deck 6 upward,
the ship is water-free, but waterlogged.
And 10 decks still remain underwater.
While the salvage team
stabilizes the great ship,
the other tough work begins.
The destroyed cruise ship is a crime scene.
The cavernous wreck must be searched
for remains of two people.
A team of 80 divers
begins a meticulous, room-by-room search
within the flooded ship.
Diver, translated: In
all rescue missions,
the scene is in command.
In the case of the Costa Concordia,
in the beginning we were
dealing with a surreal scene,
never imagined by the workers and divers.
Finally, on day 14,
a diver finds a body.
Once the diver entered the passageway
to conduct an exploration of the ship,
he found himself in
very difficult conditions.
On the starboard side,
he identified the 31st victim.
The diver has found Maria Grazia.
The exact details of what happened to her
remain unclear,
but water had swept Stefania's mother
to a place on the ship far from her cabin.
She took the staircase toward the stern
and arrived at the kitchen.
Unfortunately, there,
evidently the water
arrived with great force
and transported the
body to where we found it.
Maria's husband and
daughter finally have closure,
but they're tormented
by what they imagine
to be her final moments.
There must have been
that last second, at the end,
when she thought, "I am dying."
And this leaves me with incredible anguish.
But Stefania feels
that her mother is at peace.
I'm happy she is back home.
She loved the sea so much,
and in some way,
the sea cradled her for two years now.
It isn't something that
made me hate the sea.
I will continue to love the sea.
It reminds me of her.
The police divers
still hope to find Russell Rubello,
but so far, he remains missing.
With the Concordia upright again,
the most dangerous part
of the operation is over.
Good day. How are you?
But the salvage team must push forward
before winter arrives in full force.
I didn't realize how big it was
until it actually got
turned over, I don't think.
There's still two-thirds...
Two-thirds are still underneath.
Can't imagine.
More than 10 stories underneath there.
Yeah, yeah.
The aft and back, two, two minutes...
Just to the stern and back.
The wreck is still unstable,
so they will proceed with caution.
So almost about
there, just by the l or the o,
that whole frame...
Just take that off all the way up.
All the way up.
Nick plans to
reinforce the damaged sections
and add 19 more floats before
they attempt to tow her away.
By July 2014, deck 3 will be at water level
and six decks will remain underwater.
They're almost back
to where there's red paint,
just where the buckle's up.
Then we go along here...
So we've got some major cracks
that have come up from
the parbuckling operation.
The parbuckle has
exposed new holes in the hull,
and there's more backbreaking work ahead
to ready the ship for her slow tug crawl
to her final dock in the summer,
where she'll be broken up for scrap.
We'll clean up all the areas that you see.
The car crash, the dimples,
get back to the structure of the ship.
And she'll be ready for
spring to start adding sponsons
and then do the refloat.
By the time she's refloated and delivered
will be time go home.
Soon, the island's view will be restored.
But even after the Concordia is gone,
no one will ever forget the disaster
and the 32 who died.
The raising of the Costa Concordia,
after two years and millions of man-hours,
remains a testament to
the courage of the survivors,
the skill of the salvage crew,
and the legacy of a once-great cruise ship.
Longer than the Titanic,
with twice as many decks.
One of the world's most
luxurious cruise ships.
Exit the other side, please!
Exit the other side!
On the night of January 13, 2012,
near Italy's tuscan coast,
she becomes the largest
passenger shipwreck in history.
30 people are dead.
Two are still missing.
Now the world's best marine salvage team
faces mission impossible.
They'll only have one chance
to raise the massive ship
that is teetering precariously
over a deep-sea drop-off.
Senior salvage master Nick Sloane
is in charge of it all.
- This is Mr. Sloane.
- Hi, Mr. Sloane.
You have to live and die by your decisions.
Will Sloane and his team
manage to right the ship
without triggering an
environmental disaster?
Will the missing victims be found?
This girl survived,
but her mother is among the missing.
Now she shares her
mother's last known moments,
for the first time, with her father.
Woman, translated: We heard
the alarm to abandon ship.
We all held hands,
then we went to the lifeboat deck.
Through the eyes of survivors
and the skills of the engineers,
this is the untold story of
raising the Costa Concordia.
9:00 P.M., January 13, 2012.
The Costa Concordia is just three hours
into her weekly cruise
around the Mediterranean.
The huge vessel powers
toward the Italian island of Giglio
at a speed of 16 knots.
On board, the Concordia's
4,200 passengers and crew
enjoy the floating pleasure palace.
They can choose from
one of her five restaurants,
or enjoy a drink in any of her 13 bars.
Bingo is running on deck 5.
Stefania Vincenzi, her mother Maria Grazia,
and a friend, luisa versi,
sit down to dinner
in the Milano restaurant on deck 3.
Stefania Vincenzi, translated:
It was a beautiful evening.
My mother was celebrating
her 50th birthday.
Exquisite meals
flow out of the ship's kitchens
with factory-line precision.
But this typical evening of indulgence
is about to be cut short.
While the passengers eat,
the ship strays dangerously close to shore,
headed straight for a rocky outcrop.
It was a loud
screeching, like "eeeerrrrrrrr."
And then a huge crash
and almost like an explosion.
It sounded like a freight train
and that metal was just
rubbing up against metal.
And then the ship
began to list quite heavily.
Everything is sliding off the tables,
people are screaming...
- The lights went out.
- And the lights went out.
And that really caused panic.
Screaming and running and falling...
Exit the other side, please!
Exit the other side!
Everyone's trying to run out the main door.
The largest Italian
cruise ship ever designed
is going down.
Stefania Vincenzi remembers
every minute of that night.
We stayed seated at our table
because the people were panicked.
We preferred to stay calm and stay seated,
also because the ship was already tilting.
The waitress for our table began to cry.
She collapsed.
My mother consoled her
and told her everything would be ok.
She had a very reassuring
gaze, especially for me.
Those were the only eyes
that were able to calm me down.
So, I wasn't agitated at all that evening.
Thousands of tons of seawater
flood the engine room,
and the great ship loses power.
It's chaos,
it's terrifying,
and within minutes,
fear and confusion turn to mass panic.
There were people
pushing and crushing people.
When you have these situations of danger,
unfortunately the crowds are uncontainable.
A series of horn blasts or alarms
is the international
signal to abandon ship.
The alarm went off to abandon ship.
Everyone was talking,
saying, "maybe it's just shallow water.
Maybe the ship will stabilize."
Instead, we began to hear the alarms.
Mama said that there must be seven blasts
with the last one long.
Everything fell silent.
And we started counting the blasts.
We heard the seventh alarm.
It had a prolonged blast.
We looked into each other's
eyes and said, "here we go."
When they finally lowered us down,
they still had trouble releasing us.
And at this point you have to remember,
the ship is leaning over us.
You have this huge
structure just leaning over you,
and if you can't release your lifeboat...
It would have come down upon us.
Yeah.
Stefania and her mother
get in line for a lifeboat on deck 4,
but it fills up before they can board.
Her mother Maria
announces she's returning to
their cabin, two decks below.
Mama wanted to get a lifejacket
because it was cold
and because her friend
Louisa didn't know how to swim.
If we looked up, we
see the ship was on this angle,
and there's all people
on the bow of the ship,
yelling, "help! Help!"
Infrared footage
from the rescue helicopters
shows the escape ladder at the stern
and some of the survivors
swimming the 20 yards to shore.
Stefania does as her mother tells her
and boards another lifeboat.
I tried to call my
mother to see where she was.
She said that she was on a lifeboat,
and that she was arriving.
I said, "when you arrive,
call me and tell me what
part of the port you're in."
But that call never came.
It seems we've collided with an island.
The whole city's here to greet us, yeah.
Many who reach shore
wait for news of their loved ones.
The tiny island town
is flooded with thousands
of desperate refugees
from the disaster.
This is no... No joke.
Oh, my goodness.
Locals become heroes that night.
Families open their homes
and hearts to strangers.
Many passengers make
their way to the church.
Man, translated: Here's
where those people are.
Also here.
There were people with their lifejackets.
And they were waiting for
someone to do something.
I came and opened the church,
and they started to come in.
Everyone was here and here.
The guy who was soaking
wet was sitting here.
There were the children
who arrived in the beginning
who were cold.
Those still on board the doomed ship
could see the shore,
creating a false sense of security.
We could just jump off and swim.
At 11 P.M.,
Stefania's mother,
Maria, calls her husband,
but he doesn't hear the phone.
Maria calls a family friend next,
who hears Louisa cry,
"I don't know how
to swim. Help me."
My mother said,
"don't worry. You
can hold on to me.
I will take care of you."
And then he heard, "we're
sliding into the water,"
and a splash, as if the
phone was falling into the sea.
The body of Maria's friend, Louisa,
would later be found with other victims.
But Stefania's mother is
never heard from again,
and her fate is a mystery.
In the morning,
the Costa Concordia lies on her side
near porto Giglio.
The coast guard and fire rescue
start searching for anyone still aboard.
A local restaurant owner
displays the first photo of the rescue
that flashed around the world.
Man, translated: This photo
was requested by the firemen
who went to recover the bodies.
30 people will be confirmed dead,
with two still missing:
Stefania's mother
and a young waiter from
India, Russell Rubello.
Relatives fear the worst,
but there can't be closure
until the wreck is righted
and the submerged decks
are completely searched.
Almost two years later,
the 114,000-ton ship,
with another 60,000 tons of contents,
is collapsing from its own weight.
It has become an environmental hazard,
threatening the entire coastline.
The Costa Concordia must be removed.
If it was an empty shell,
the salvage crew could simply cut her up.
But because the ship is
packed with personal effects
and possibly the remains of two people,
that isn't an option.
There's only one plan:
Pull the Concordia
upright and tow her away.
But the great ship
is perched on top of two
undersea granite pinnacles.
One wrong move will twist her in two,
or send her spinning into the abyss.
But they have to try.
After more than a year of research,
experts came to a shocking conclusion:
It's now or never.
The Concordia may not
survive another winter intact.
She's an environmental time bomb.
Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah, you got a crew
change in 10, 15 minutes?
Senior salvage master Nick Sloane
has tackled some of the
world's toughest marine fixes,
like huge oil tankers snapped in half
by waves off of South Africa's coast.
Depending on the weather,
that looks more sheltered down aft.
But this one is beyond compare.
Then when you stand on board,
you see how absolutely big it is,
and you really realize
what you've got yourself into.
Two things make it particularly difficult.
One is the size of the
ship, and then the location.
So if you look at Giglio,
the location where
she sat on the two reefs,
and you combine the two assets together,
it's just off the scale.
Ok, let's get ready for deck.
These guys are a rare breed.
They can mobilize within hours,
ready to attack sudden disasters.
Now they're taking on the
most challenging wreck removal
ever attempted.
Righting the Concordia
will require nearly 500
experts from 24 nations.
Once upright,
she will be refloated and
towed to a shipyard in July.
We have one of the largest salvage teams
ever put together in history.
Divers, welders, engineers,
fabricators, mariners...
Just everything you can think of.
It's huge.
Nick Sloane and his team
have put 18 months of backbreaking work
and could spend as much as $800 million
on the gamble that they can
pry the great ship off the rocks.
They'll get only one shot to do it right.
Salvage master Nick Sloane
is about to attempt an engineering miracle:
Raising the Costa Concordia
from its watery grave.
It's called the parbuckling project.
Parbuckling is a method
used to retrieve a sunken vessel
by using slings and weight to roll her.
On one side,
hydraulic Jacks will keep
her from sliding down...
While powerful Jacks on the opposite side
rotate her upright.
You can't really go
into a hardware store and say,
"I want one Costa
Concordia parbuckling kit,"
because they wouldn't
really know what you mean.
So everything that we have
has been designed and built by the team.
But the process has never been applied
to a passenger ship as large as Concordia.
The preparation alone is extraordinary.
First, the team fills in
beneath her sagging midsection
with 20,000 tons of giant cement bags
to support her tremendous weight.
The bags also level the sloping sea floor
and will help distribute the
massive forces on the ship.
Then, they weld 10-story ballast tanks,
called sponsons,
on her exposed side.
These will be filled with water
during the latter stage of the parbuckle
to assist the rotation...
And then emptied to add buoyancy
and to control her touchdown.
Next, they encircle
her with hydraulic Jacks
capable of shifting over 200,000 tons
of dead weight upright.
Nick Sloane and his team
are as ready as they can be.
How do you feel?
Excited.
Yeah, we're looking
forward to getting her upright.
It's been a long 18 months.
And it's about time that we got her up.
The stakes are high for the engineers
and the locals.
A day before it's a go,
the people of Giglio call
in some help from above.
Local churches pray for success.
Priest, translated:
In particular,
we ask him to guide the hand of those
who are carrying out
the recovery of the ship.
It's a high-risk operation.
The wreck is so fragile
that Sloane has only
one shot to get it right.
If the ship breaks apart,
the two missing victims
might never be found
and the coast will be hopelessly polluted.
An engineering project this size
requires attention to every minute detail.
Sloane tested his approach
to righting the Concordia
through computer simulations.
But at first, all this advanced
technology brought bad news.
Just pulling the ship up
as is would end in disaster.
It looks like a bad car crash in the model.
And then it told us the bow
and the stern would fall off
if we didn't do corrective action.
The original simulations
identified two critical challenges.
First, the bow,
overhanging the support platforms
by nearly a football field,
could collapse and break off.
In the bow area it was far too deep.
So the water depth just
goes all the way down
to 80, 100 meters.
We could not build a platform there.
So they created a buoyant neck brace
to support the bow and spine of the ship.
And it's like a casualty
with a spinal injury on the ground.
You hold the neck and
you just rotate them slowly
to minimize any twist in the spine.
It all comes down to weight and power.
But when one problem is solved,
another appears.
The second challenge is impossible
to completely troubleshoot in advance.
Nick knows the Concordia is lodged on rocks
that punched through her hull.
What he can't know
is how tightly those rocks
might hold her to the sea floor
as they attempt the lift.
The breakout force
depends on the profile of the rock.
So if the rock is nice and smooth,
we can break it off
without too much friction.
But if they have a knuckle
which is trapped inside on the side shelf,
then you have to break
it and tear it off that.
If they manage to pull Concordia free
from that rocky grip,
the next problem is the
sheer weight of the wreck.
The ship sank with unused food and supplies
for all 4,200 people on board.
Sloane must factor all of this weight,
along with that of the actual ship,
into the force required to
raise her from the sea floor.
The moment she lifts up,
all the weight gets transferred
onto the starboard bilge keel,
and that weight wants to crush the ship.
It is not designed to
take that sort of load.
With all the internal
furniture, the dining rooms...
Everything's fallen down to the lower side
and absorbed water.
All the passengers' hand luggage,
carpets, mattresses...
Everything's absorbed water
and fallen over to the
starboard side of the shell,
so that makes it more difficult
because we're not sure exactly
where the center of gravity is.
Nick and his team must plan for both known
and unforeseeable trouble.
They designed a steel platform
to be the Concordia's
new level resting site,
hoping to prevent the ship
from sliding into the abyss.
Nick believes this will keep
the middle of the wreck...
Her weakest point...
From collapsing during the rotation.
Remotely operated vehicles, or rovs,
with high-resolution cameras,
have been Nick's eyes
during the installation of the platform.
Tomorrow, they'll provide
real-time underwater monitoring
during the parbuckling.
The moment of truth is just hours away.
Will Nick Sloane's grand and extreme plan
for raising the Concordia succeed?
Or will the fragile wreck break in two,
creating an environmental disaster?
Since the wreck of the Costa Concordia
in January 2012,
the tiny island of Giglio,
off Italy's tuscan coast,
has been transformed into
a hub of engineering muscle.
Porto Giglio's population
of 500 has doubled,
due to the huge salvage team
that works around the clock.
There's activity in the
harbor day and night.
Next to the battered and broken Concordia
is a floating dormitory,
where most of the hundreds of workers live.
The 18 months of effort will
culminate in the ultimate test,
in just 24 hours.
If the parbuckle succeeds,
then life will slowly return to normal
on the sleepy Italian island.
But if the ship breaks apart,
this part of the Mediterranean
will be an environmental disaster zone.
The Concordia already
shows signs of disintegration,
so the salvage crew
knows it's now or never.
Nick heads out for one final check
before tomorrow's big event.
The ballast tanks have
been precisely adjusted
to control the water intake and outflow
critical in the operation.
Computers that control the holdback Jacks
have been tested.
22 massive chains
and the steel cables
that encircle the wreck
are securely in place.
And the powerful hydraulic Jacks
on the seaward side are ready.
All of the engineering
machinery is poised for action.
So, Nick, are we
ready? - We're ready.
Nick Sloane has the
weight of the world on his shoulders,
but he doesn't let it show.
Final checks
are going to take up
the tension this evening,
and then get ready for the morning...
How do you feel?
Good. Very good.
Very confident.
Media from around the world
have descended on the
narrow streets of Giglio
for the big event.
Mostly the weather.
Sloane has reason to worry,
because offshore,
it's getting ugly quickly.
Violent electrical storms
are common in the
Mediterranean during Autumn,
and this one looks menacing.
5:45 A.M.
The raising of the Costa Concordia
is set to start.
But the rain and lightning
have knocked out the
entire electronics system.
One of the control
panels has short-circuited.
These electronics are the only way
Nick can control the
Jacks and buoyancy tanks.
The disaster threatens to delay or even end
the project before it begins.
But Sloane is a meticulous planner.
His team has back-up ready to install.
While the crew makes the switch,
a barge moves the portable
control room into place.
Nick Sloane heads out to take command.
Swapping out the circuit boards
has caused a three-hour delay,
but now they're ready.
With a simple twirl of his
hand, Nick signals, "let's do it."
It's 9:00 A.M.
After millions of hours
from hundreds of experts,
the fate of the Concordia
is now in the hands of twelve people.
Go down to the touchdown point.
Ok, do we synchronize our watches?
08:59. What's your time?
09:00 hours.
They will scrutinize
every second of the parbuckle.
But their ears are just
as important as their eyes
at this early stage.
Underwatericrophones
will pick up the battered ship's sounds
as the Jacks start to lift her.
A loud groan would be
the first sign of trouble.
We're at 2,200 and we're going up...
36 hydraulic Jacks
start to tighten the cables.
Tons of pulling capacity go to work.
The raising of Concordia begins.
But while all eyes and
ears in the command center
are focused on the ship,
another group back on shore
is monitoring the
progress in a different way,
using technologies that
can literally see into the ship.
These yellow elements are the Jacks,
and we can see they are a yellow color,
meaning a higher temperature.
So the parbuckling has started.
Dr. Nicola Casagli
is a geology professor at
the university of Florence.
We can move to the next installation.
His team rushed to the wreck site
a mere four days after the accident,
deploying high-end laser
and infrared cameras.
They've been monitoring it
continuously every hour since.
They're used to analyzing volcanoes,
but their expertise will help ensure
the parbuckle proceeds safely.
Here there is a 3-dimensional laser scanner
and a thermal camera.
The lasers detect
every movement of the wreck,
and the data is sent
to the Italian authorities
and to Sloane.
As the rotation puts extreme
stress on the Concordia,
they're able to see any
deformation to the ship
in real time.
The white elements is a point.
For each point we know
exactly the topographical position.
They check 3 million points on the ship
simultaneously.
At first, progress is
invisible to the naked eye,
but a monumental force
is rotating the Concordia's massive frame.
Every member of the team
is scouring the incoming
data for any signs of trouble.
If the wreck starts to
twist or break apart,
they may have only seconds to react.
The Jacks are straining to
pull the ship off the rocks.
But until we actually see her lift,
we won't know what that force is.
So that's the unknown factor.
The higher that gets,
the more nervous we get.
We got up to 4,000 tons,
5,000 tons, 6,000 tons.
Then, Nick sees a serious problem.
With growing alarm, he realizes the Jacks
are already over 65%
of their maximum power.
They're at more than 6,500,
and still the ship won't budge.
Channel 7.
For a heart-stopping moment,
Nick fears the Concordia is
permanently stuck on the rocks.
Finally, at 6,800 tons...
Movement.
The ship has pulled free.
People were pretty quiet there
because that was now on
the more pessimistic side
of the way we were expecting it to be,
but at 6,800, then she came up.
The university team on land
confirms that the ship is slowly rotating,
and just as important,
all parts of the ship are moving together.
The rotation is going well
because all the points show
the same amount of displacement.
So the ship is moving like a rigid body,
without internal deformation.
Everything is going smooth.
Tourists and press hold a collective breath
while unseen but powerful forces
slowly raise the massive ship.
But Sloane's team still
has a long way to go
before they are assured of success.
The massive shipwreck
could break apart at any time.
In theory, everything has
been taken into consideration:
The weight of the ship,
the 400,000 tons of water inside...
Even the force when that water runs out.
And the friction from
pulling up and off the rocks.
Lasers show all is going as planned.
If onlookers expect instant drama,
they're disappointed.
But Nick's team has to go slow and steady
if they have any hope
of keeping the ship intact.
After an hour, the ship has
rotated less than one degree.
We say one hour to break her off the rock,
another 5 1/2 to 6 hours to
get to where gravity takes over,
one hour to drop her
to the 10-degree level,
and then another hour just
to put her on the platform
as gently as possible.
I have new data.
We are at 2 degrees and a half now.
They are proceeding very quickly.
I give you in inches.
35 inch.
10 inch per hour.
Thermal cameras and radar reveal
that all of the steel cables
are turning at exactly the same speed
as they pull the Concordia.
Now the pace of the parbuckle
increases to 2 degrees per hour,
and the gruesome
sea-logged side of the ship
slowly emerges.
The algae-darkened hull is exposed to air
for the first time in almost two years.
Just when success seems certain,
Sloane's vital monitors suddenly go blank.
Without the input from
cameras throughout the ship,
Nick's team is working blind.
Sloane can't solve the problem,
and he can't even see what's wrong.
Yeah, please can
you request to rov pilot...
The team launches a small camera drone
to investigate.
At this critical stage of the parbuckle,
they must fix this problem,
or the salvage operation can't continue.
The raising of the Costa Concordia
has hit a snag,
and it could be a fatal one.
Critical monitors are down.
The drone shows that steel cables
have become twisted with the data lines.
The operation can't continue
unless they can get these
vital monitors working.
Sloane sends a crew
out to the unstable wreck
to fix the problem.
The news is mixed...
They can see and correct the problem,
but it will cost the
operation at least an hour,
and the longer the ship is frozen in place,
the greater danger it could break apart.
Finally, they manage to
restore the electronic feed.
Nick hits restart.
Yeah, just confirm all
personnel off the Concordia.
Ok, we're going up 10%.
For residents on shore,
watching the Costa Concordia slowly emerge
brings back the horror of the disaster.
It could have been even worse.
One local, settimo butelli,
saw the Concordia
barreling toward the island
on January 13, 2012.
He describes how wind and currents
swung the mortally wounded ship around
and pushed it toward Giglio's harbor,
instead of out to sea.
Settimo, translated: It was a
miracle because if the wind,
instead of blowing from the east,
it came from the south,
the ship would have gone into open waters,
and they would all be dead.
For Stefania Vincenzi,
the raising of the Concordia is
a last hope to find her mother,
who is missing and presumed dead.
Stefania and her father, elio,
are still haunted by
the events of that night.
As they desperately
sought a way off the ship,
her mother decided to return
to their cabin for a lifejacket.
I said, "no, you can't go to the cabin,"
but she continued to
insist, so I grabbed her arm.
She said, "I need to
get a lifejacket for Louisa
because she doesn't
know how to swim."
When she went down the
stairs, I looked at her and she said,
"come on, I'll give you a kiss."
I said "go! Give
me the kiss later."
Mama turned to go down
the steps and smiled,
and she disappeared.
Stefania never saw her mother again.
While they don't know exactly
what happened to Maria,
they suspect she became
trapped when the ship tipped over.
Here's where people disembarked before us,
and they were given blankets.
The ship was still not completely inclined.
Elio, translated: I
never understood
why there were no images
of the last collapse of the boat
when mama died.
How is it possible that
no one filmed the moment?
Plus, she knew how to swim well.
She was a very good swimmer.
Possibly...
i don't know.
It could be that she was trapped,
that she couldn't get out,
and water came in.
Both she and her father
hope for closure once
the Concordia is upright
and divers can search for Maria.
Night falls,
but they must go on.
The hull has been under extreme loads
longer than planned,
and structural failure is
just around the corner.
Under halogen work lights,
a giant cave of shredded metal
slowly emerges from the inky black water.
Deck by deck,
the corpse of the wreck slowly emerges
throughout the long night.
At 4:00 A.M.,
19 long hours after he launched the effort,
the Concordia is upright and secure
on the underwater platforms.
Ships' horns announce the victory
to the waiting press and
the residents of Giglio.
The salvage master finally heads to shore.
Bravo!
With the rainstorm
and everything we had the night before,
there were some challenges.
Electronics on board got wiped out.
So, yeah, those things happen in salvage.
So there's been no gas,
there's been no pollution.
She's completely upright.
How do you feel
now? - A lot of relief.
What is your next step?
Well, we're going to have a beer tonight,
or this morning.
Nick, congratulations!
- Thanks, man.
- You are the best!
The wrecked Concordia is now afloat.
But the job isn't over.
Police must now search
for Maria Grazia Trecarichi
and the young waiter, Russell Rubello,
whose bodies may still be trapped inside.
Dawn reveals
how much this once glorious,
luxury cruise ship has changed.
In the Costa Concordia's glory days,
a week-long Mediterranean cruise
would cost several
hundred dollars, or more.
Now that the extent of
her damage is revealed,
it seems like a miracle that
so many escaped that night.
From deck 6 upward,
the ship is water-free, but waterlogged.
And 10 decks still remain underwater.
While the salvage team
stabilizes the great ship,
the other tough work begins.
The destroyed cruise ship is a crime scene.
The cavernous wreck must be searched
for remains of two people.
A team of 80 divers
begins a meticulous, room-by-room search
within the flooded ship.
Diver, translated: In
all rescue missions,
the scene is in command.
In the case of the Costa Concordia,
in the beginning we were
dealing with a surreal scene,
never imagined by the workers and divers.
Finally, on day 14,
a diver finds a body.
Once the diver entered the passageway
to conduct an exploration of the ship,
he found himself in
very difficult conditions.
On the starboard side,
he identified the 31st victim.
The diver has found Maria Grazia.
The exact details of what happened to her
remain unclear,
but water had swept Stefania's mother
to a place on the ship far from her cabin.
She took the staircase toward the stern
and arrived at the kitchen.
Unfortunately, there,
evidently the water
arrived with great force
and transported the
body to where we found it.
Maria's husband and
daughter finally have closure,
but they're tormented
by what they imagine
to be her final moments.
There must have been
that last second, at the end,
when she thought, "I am dying."
And this leaves me with incredible anguish.
But Stefania feels
that her mother is at peace.
I'm happy she is back home.
She loved the sea so much,
and in some way,
the sea cradled her for two years now.
It isn't something that
made me hate the sea.
I will continue to love the sea.
It reminds me of her.
The police divers
still hope to find Russell Rubello,
but so far, he remains missing.
With the Concordia upright again,
the most dangerous part
of the operation is over.
Good day. How are you?
But the salvage team must push forward
before winter arrives in full force.
I didn't realize how big it was
until it actually got
turned over, I don't think.
There's still two-thirds...
Two-thirds are still underneath.
Can't imagine.
More than 10 stories underneath there.
Yeah, yeah.
The aft and back, two, two minutes...
Just to the stern and back.
The wreck is still unstable,
so they will proceed with caution.
So almost about
there, just by the l or the o,
that whole frame...
Just take that off all the way up.
All the way up.
Nick plans to
reinforce the damaged sections
and add 19 more floats before
they attempt to tow her away.
By July 2014, deck 3 will be at water level
and six decks will remain underwater.
They're almost back
to where there's red paint,
just where the buckle's up.
Then we go along here...
So we've got some major cracks
that have come up from
the parbuckling operation.
The parbuckle has
exposed new holes in the hull,
and there's more backbreaking work ahead
to ready the ship for her slow tug crawl
to her final dock in the summer,
where she'll be broken up for scrap.
We'll clean up all the areas that you see.
The car crash, the dimples,
get back to the structure of the ship.
And she'll be ready for
spring to start adding sponsons
and then do the refloat.
By the time she's refloated and delivered
will be time go home.
Soon, the island's view will be restored.
But even after the Concordia is gone,
no one will ever forget the disaster
and the 32 who died.
The raising of the Costa Concordia,
after two years and millions of man-hours,
remains a testament to
the courage of the survivors,
the skill of the salvage crew,
and the legacy of a once-great cruise ship.