Costa Concordia Salvage Operation Underway In Last-Ditch Effort [Video]

The Costa Concordia salvage operation is currently underway. As you’ll see in the video, salvage master Nick Sloane has called the €500 million job a “one time, one chance opportunity” to salvage what they can before the vessel is crushed by the powerful pressures of sea water.

The Costa Concordia was destroyed on calm seas on January 13, 2012. Captain Francesco Schettino is currently on trial in Grosseto, Italy for the accident and botched evacuation that left 32 people dead and a $570 million cruising vessel in ruins. He is charged with manslaughter and abandoning his ship before all 4,200 on the super vessel were safely evacuated.

Schettino. 52, reportedly asked for a plea deal yesterday. Bloomberg is reporting that the accused Costa Concordia captain has requested a three year, five month jail sentence in the plea bargain.

If convicted of the charges without a deal, Schettino could face a sentence of as much as 20 years.

Whatever the outcome of the plea haggling and/or the trial, the Costa Concordia salvage operation needs to get a move on or give up all hope of recovering much from the increasingly compressed ship. The work has already been delayed multiple times on account of weather.

The National Weather Service noted that Sloane has already said that the salvage job lost two months because of rough seas that made it too dangerous for diving teams to work in the area.

The photo shows you what the Costa Concordia looked like not long before the disaster.

In addition to recovering the ship, the divers also hope to find two bodies that remain missing. But if the Costa Concordia salvage operation doesn’t succeed soon, there may not be much left of anything left to get.

[Costa Concordia before photo credit: Carlo Mirante via photopin cc]

[Costa Concordia accident scene photo credit: Nephelim (www.nerobizzarro.com) via photopin cc]