Costa Concordia Pulled Upright Off Italy [VIDEO]
People on the Tuscan island of Giglio are cheering this morning as the Costa Concorida cruise ship is completely upright after 20 months of lying on its side on the coast.
FOX News Radio’s Courtney Walsh reports:
(Crowd) “Nick congratulations! You are the best!”
The hero of the hour is Nick Sloane. Head technician during the 19 hour righting of the Costa Concordia. At 4am this morning this historic operation, initially expected to take no more than 12 hours, was complete.
(Sloane) “She is strong enough to come up like this and she’s strong enough to re-float. Sloane says the next step will be re-float the ship to shore, sometime by next summer.”
The Costa ran aground and sank on January a year ago, after the Captain brought the cruise ship carrying 4,000 too close to shore. Thirty-two died. Two bodies have never been recovered.
The trial of Costa Captain Schettino – charged with manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship continues on September 23rd.
In Rome, Courtney Walsh, FOX News Radio.
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