It’s taken over 3 years but the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner is finally ready for scrapping, after being gutted of its insides. The giant vessel was pulled away by tugboats on Tuesday from Italy’s Genoa harbor to finally be demolished and scrapped.
The ship hit rocks and partially capsized off the Italian island of Giglio in January 2012 in an accident that killed 32 people. It took 30 months to artificially refloat the vessel and tow it to a port for dismantling.
A pair of tugboats eased the massive wreck into a section of Genoa harbor where the shell of the ship is expected to start being dismantled next week. Starting from the top, the Concordia will be dismantled one deck at a time and the material scrapped.
The Concordia’s captain was convicted this year of manslaughter and causing the shipwreck and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
It looks like Costa Cruises can now draw a line under this whole sorry episode, let’s hope the families of the victims at some point can do the same.