After an incredible 19-hour salvage effort, the crippled Costa Concordia cruise liner was successfully pulled upright from its side in the waters off Tuscany yesterday in a make-or-break engineering attempt that had never before been tried in such conditions. Here's a much, much closer look.
Italy's national Civil Protection agency waited until sea and weather conditions were just right at dawn Monday before giving the OK to try to salvage the 114,000-ton vessel. Here is an amazing time lapse video from BBC showing the full process from one angle:
From Monday to Tuesday a 500-person crew, comprising workers from 26 countries, rolled the huge ship off the rocks on which it had rested since January 2012. The procedure, known as parbuckling, has never been carried out on a vessel as large as Costa Concordia before. The severely damaged ship will now be towed away and scrapped. In the meantime, here's a photographic record of what's happened so far:
The Costa Concordia ship lies on its side on the Tuscan Island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013.
Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP
A woman in a swimsuit walks in front of the wreckage of the Costa Concordia.
Photo: Marco Secchi/Getty Images
Reporters and cameramen work as the Costa Concordia ship lies on its side.
Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP
Titan and Micoperi workers are seen on the stricken Costa Concordia.
Photo: Laura Lezza/Getty Images
Large buoyancy tanks are attached to the side of the ship. Look at the worker on the right side for scale.
Photo: Laura Lezza/Getty Images
Authorities give the final go-ahead for a daring attempt on Monday to pull upright the crippled Costa Concordia cruise liner from its side. The cruiser doesn't budge for the first three hours of the operation.
Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP
Engineers work on the wreckage of the Costa Concordia Monday evening.
Photo: Marco Secchi/Getty Images
The delicate operation to rotate the luxury liner from its capsized position to upright stretches into Tuesday, much later than had been anticipated.
Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP
The ship is pulled completely upright early Tuesday.
Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP
The parbuckling operation successfully rights the ship around 4 am on September 17, 2013.
Photo: Laura Lezza/Getty Images
A detail of the right side of the Costa Concordia after it was lifted upright.
Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP
Full view of the level Costa Concordia.
Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP
A closer look at the damaged right side.
Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP
Officials declared a "perfect" end to a daring and unprecedented engineering feat.
Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP
The severely damaged side of the stricken Costa Concordia in daylight.
Photo: Marco Secchi/Getty Images
The hull is still under water; there's still work to be done.
Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP