Photos: Raising the Costa Concordia

Alan Taylor
September 17, 2013
38 Photos
In Focus

After spending more than 600 days partially submerged near Isola del Giglio, Italy, the wreck of the Costa Concordia was successfully rolled upright last night. The cruise ship capsized after striking a reef on January 13, 2012, killing 32 passengers and crew members. The complex salvage operation, known as "parbuckling," was the largest and most expensive in history: It cost $800 million and involved months of preparation. The actual parbuckling took 19 hours, and when it was complete, the ship's horn sounded above the crowd's shouts and cheers. Gathered here are images from the past 613 days in Tuscany -- from the initial disaster to today's righting of the Costa Concordia.

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View of the Costa Concordia taken on January 14, 2012, after the cruise ship ran aground and keeled over off the Isola del Giglio. 32 passengers and crew members drowned after the Italian ship with some 4,200 people on board ran aground. The Costa Concordia was on a trip around the Mediterranean when it hit a reef near the island of Giglio, only a few hours into its voyage, as passengers were sitting down for dinner. Last night, 613 days after the original incident, Salvage crews successfully rolled the Costa Concordia into an upright position. #

Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

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On January 14, 2012, this photo acquired by the Associated Press from a passenger of the Costa Concordia, shows fellow passengers wearing life-vests as they wait to be evacuated. #

AP Photo/Courtesy a tourist aboard the ship

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This January 13, 2012 photo shows the Costa Concordia lays rolling onto its starboard side after it ran aground off the coast of the Isola del Giglio island, Italy. #

AP Photo/Giuseppe Modesti

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A still image from video taken January 14, 2012, the night of the crash, shows passengers lined up on the side of the Costa Concordia, as they move down the side of the vessel during an evacuation. #

Reuters/Guardia Costiera

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The lights of Giglio harbor, seen from near the wrecked Costa Concordia, on January 24, 2012. #

AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS

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The Costa Concordia, aground off the coast of Giglio, on January 17, 2012. #

Reuters/DigitalGlobe/Handout

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Costa Concordia cruise liner captain Francesco Schettino (right) is escorted by a Carabinieri in Grosseto, Italy, on January 14, 2012. Schettino, the captain of the Italian cruise liner that ran aground off Italy's west coast, was arrested on the charges of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship, police said. His trial is still ongoing. #

Reuters/Enzo Russo/ANSA

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Rescuers work on the cruise ship Costa Concordia, lying on its side off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, on January 19, 2012. #

AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia

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Chairs float next to the Costa Concordia, on January 23, 2012. #

Reuters/Tony Gentile

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Pieces of furniture are recovered from the Costa Concordia, on January 23, 2012. #

AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito

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A Carabinieri scuba diver inspects the hull of the Costa Concordia on January 19, 2012. #

Reuters/Centro subacquei dei Carabinieri

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Scuba divers make their way into a flooded cabin of the Costa Concordia, on January 24, 2012. #

AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS

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A crushed section of the Costa Concordia is seen underwater on January 16, 2012. #

Reuters/Guardia Costiera

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A Carabinieri scuba diver inspects the Costa Concordia, on January 19, 2012. #

Reuters/Centro subacquei dei Carabinieri

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Scuba divers inspect the interior of the Costa Concordia, on January 24, 2012. #

AP Photo/Italian Navy

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An inside view of the Costa Concordia, on January 24, 2012. #

AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS

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In this frame grab of a footage provided by SMIT Salvage, on January 28, 2012, a scuba diver uses a special gear to prepare the oil recovery from the Costa Concordia. Rough seas off Italy's Tuscan coast had forced delays in the planned start of the operation to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruis ship. #

AP Photo/SMIT Salvage

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The capsized Costa Concordia, on February 11, 2012. #

Reuters/Giampiero Sposito

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A year after the disaster, a relative of the Costa Concordia shipwreck's victims touches a commemorative plaque bearing the names of the 32 people who lost their lives, on the Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, on January 13, 2013. #

AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia

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Salvage workers stand on the hull of the Costa Concordia, on January 8, 2013. #

Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

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Technicians check oil spill booms floating around the Costa Concordia, on January 25, 2012. #

AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito

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Salvage workers prepare to attach massive steel tanks to the side of the Costa Concordia, to attempt to refloat it, on January 11, 2013. #

Reuters/Stefano Rellandini

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Welders work on the Costa Concordia, on July 15, 2013. Salvage master Nick Sloane said that the weight of the Concordia against the granite sea floor had compressed the hull some 3 meters (10 feet) since it came to rest on the rocks on January 13, 2012. #

AP Photo/ Michele Barbero

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The capsized cruise liner Costa Concordia, on September 16, 2013. #

Reuters/Tony Gentile

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The wreckage of the Costa Concordia, on September 14, 2013 in Isola del Giglio, Italy. #

Marco Secchi/Getty Images

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Members of the US salvage company Titan and Italian firm Micoperi work at the wreck of Italy's Costa Concordia cruise ship, on September 15, 2013. Salvage workers are preparing to raise the ship, weather permitting, in the largest and most expensive maritime salvage operation in history, so-called "parbuckling", to rotate the ship by a series of cables and hydraulic machines. #

Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images

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An aerial view of the Costa Concordia, next to Giglio Island, taken from an Italian navy helicopter on August 26, 2013. #

Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi

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The Costa Concordia, during salvage operations, on July 15, 2013. #

AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia

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A lightning storm over the sea near the capsized cruise liner Costa Concordia, on September 15, 2013. #

Reuters/Tony Gentile

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Salvage crew looks at the capsized cruise liner Costa Concordia as it begins to lift out of the sea during the "parbuckling" operation, outside Giglio harbor, on September 16, 2013. #

Reuters/Tony Gentile

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The parbuckling project to raise the stricken Costa Concordia continues, on September 16, 2013. #

Marco Secchi/Getty Images

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The Costa Concordia during its slow roll, part of the "parbuckling" operation, on September 17, 2013. #

Reuters/Tony Gentile

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The wreck of Italy's Costa Concordia, upright for the first time since January 2012, on September 16, 2013. #

Vicenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

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After nearly two years underwater, the starboard side of the Costa Concordia is now visible, after the ship was successfully rolled upright, on September 17, 2013. #

Vicenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

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The Costa Concordia, upright, on September 17, 2013. #

Vicenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

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The starboard stern of the Costa Concordia, after being righted, on September 17, 2013. #

Vicenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

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The wreck of the Costa Concordia, during salvage operations on September 17, 2013. #

Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images

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The upright -- but still partially submerged -- Costa Concordia, near the harbor of Giglio Porto, on September 17, 2013. The ship's horn sounded for the first time since the January 13, 2012 tragedy, its sound mixing with applause and cheers in the port in a dramatic climax to the massive salvage operation. #

Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images

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