A complicated salvage operation is set to begin Monday at the site of the Costa Concordia, the luxury cruise ship that ran aground off Italy in 2012. Even if it succeeds, it will be a long time before things return to normal on the island of Giglio, where the ship wrecked last January.
A large team has gathered to try to move the wreck of the ship, which measures 952 feet in length and weighs more than 114,000 tons. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli filed this report for our Newscast unit:
"The old nautical term for the operation is called parbuckling. Over a 10- to 12-hour period, the ship – now slumped on its side on a sloping reef – will be slowly rotated as dozens of pulleys will pull it upright.
"The big unknown is the condition of the side of the ship lying on the jagged reef, which juts into the hull by some 30 feet. But the engineers in charge are confident that the operation will be successful — so confident that there's no plan B.
"The option of breaking up the ship on site was discarded because the shipwreck lies in the Tuscan marine sanctuary, Europe's biggest, a haven for whales, dolphins and the last surviving monk seals.