Costa Concordia Sponson Knocked Out of Position – Update W/ PHOTOS

Illustration shows the eventual positioning of the sponsons on the starboard side of the wreck. Image courtesy TheParbucklingProject.com

Update: The Titan Micoperia consortium has confirmed that the S13 sponson that became dislodged on Tuesday will need to be removed from the ship and brought to a shipyard where it will inspected for damage and possible repairs. The consortium has issued the following statement:

Technicians have worked all night to bring back S13, installed on the starboard side, in horizontal position.

Currently, the sponson is kept in position with the support of the Conquest crane. Technicians are carrying out operations to empty the sponson from ballast water. Such operations can cause a disequilibrium of the sponson due to the movement of internal water. Such movements are to be considered physiological, until the sponson will not be completely empty. Situation is currently under control. The sponson will be transported to a shipyard for technical assessments and necessary repairs.

Installation of the remaining sponsons will resume as soon as the Conquest crane will be available again, that is after that S13 will be loaded on the barge that will reach Giglio island from Genoa.

Photos below…

Original: Salvage crews have moved forward with the installation of 2 additional sponsons to the formerly submerged side of the Costa Concordia shipwreck, but may have hit a slight snag when the first sponson installed was knocked out of position.

According to a report from the Associated Press, the first and largest of the starboard side sponsons was knocked out of position Tuesday due to a tangled chain. The Titan-Micoperi consortium overseeing the operation confirmed via Twitter that technicians were working to remediate a technical problem with the sponson, known as S13, but did not elaborate on the problem or if the incident would cause delays in latest phase of the wreck’s removal. The sponson that shift is the largest and was the first to be installed during the current phase. Unlike the other sponsons, the tank is fitted onto the ship horizontally.

The latest update from the project’s website said that another 2 starboard-side sponsons have now been installed. The steel tanks will be filled with water to provide support to the wreckage and then emptied during the refloating phase of the ship. Three sponsons have now been installed since the wreck removal effort was ramped up in April with the end of the winter season in Giglio. There are still 12 sponsons needed to be installed on the starboard side and 4 on the port side. Technicians are expected to start operations on the fourth starboard sponson, known as S10, on Wednesday.

A total of 19 will need to be installed during the current phase and prior to the ship’s refloating, which is expected to happen this summer, possibly as early as June.

PHOTOS:

The following photos show above-water hardware after the sponson was dislodged, which is presumably supposed to be horizontal. Photos courtesy and copyright Giglio News:

The following photo shows the sponson being held in position by the Conquest crane after it became dislodged. Photo courtesy TheParbucklingProject.com:

Over 350 technicians are in Giglio and working around the clock on the Costa Concordia removal operation, including more than 120 divers.

The Costa Concordia ran aground January 13, 2012 and partially sank along the small Mediterranean Island just off the coast of Tuscany, killing 32 people. The Captain, Francesco Schettino, is currently on trial for multiple charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship.

The ship has been resting on an artificial seabed since the successful parbuckling in September 2013.

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