The wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship departed on its final voyage on September 1 as it sailed to a dry dock in Genoa for final dismantling operations, according to the Ship Recycling Consortium.

With the removal of the last two sponsons in late August, preliminary operations for the transfer from the area ex Super Bacino to the Dry Dock no. 4, where the vessel will be dismantled over the upcoming months, were concluded.

The vessel is reportedly being towed to the site by five tugs.

After it was moved from its grounding place off the Island of Giglio to the Port of Genoa two years after the incident, the vessel was stripped bare as its internal fitting was removed and its decks were cut.

Costa Concordia’s hull also regained its autonomous buoyancy and the weight of the wreck decreased, making it possible to remove all sponsons.

The cruise ship sank in January 2012 killing 32 people out of a total of 4,252 who were on board at the time of the incident.

The grounding of the cruise ship is believed to had been caused by the captain’s recklessness, as the ship came too close to the Giglio island where it got stuck and later collapsed.

The ship’s former captain, Francesco Schettino, was found guilty for multiple manslaughter, causing a maritime accident and abandoning ship and sentenced to a 16-year prison time in 2015.

He got 10 years for the deaths of 32 people, five years for causing the shipwreck, one year for abandoning ship, and one month for giving false information to maritime authorities about the gravity of the grounding.

Source: World Maritime News Staff                Photos : EFE/Luca Zennaro