The salvage operations for cruise ship Costa Concordia finally began today. Despite a three-hour delay due to thunderstorms, the team of Engineer Sergio Girotto finally started the process of righting the ship. Costa Concordia ran aground the coast of Giglio, Italy in January last year. The incident killed 32 of the 4,200 passengers of the giant vessel.
Girotto told CNN that the entire process could take around 12 hours at the least and two days at most. "I don't think we will continue into the night. After we start pulling, we should see something," he said.
Global cruise company Carnival Corporation & Plc owned Costa Cruises. Experts interviewed by online website La Stampa estimated that the damage for the constructive total loss of the ship could be pegged at USD 500 million. For the 2012 fiscal year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Carnival expected to lose USD 85 million to USD 95 million in net income because of the Costa Concordia tragedy.
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