ROME (AP) — An international team of engineers and other experts has devised no "Plan B" if an attempt to right the hulking wreck of the grounded Costa Concordia goes wrong and the cruise liner splits apart or falls back on its side near an Italian island. The team is attempting an unprecedented engineering bet to remove the luxury liner from just outside the harbor of Giglio island where it has been lying on its side after smashing into a jagged reef. The possibility that the Mediterranean cruise liner might fall apart is a "remote event," insisted Franco Gabrielli, head of Italy's Civil Protection agency, at a briefing Thursday to lay out logistics. The reef sliced a 70-meter (230-foot) long gash into a side of the hull, seawater rushed in and the Concordia began to lean over on one side, listing so quickly that many lifeboats couldn't be lowered to help save the 4,200 passengers and cruise aboard the pleasure cruise. To cushion the more delicate bow on the Concordia, crews have cradled it in protective material, a measure likened to putting a protective neck brace around an accident victim before being moved.
Reported by SeattlePI.com 3 days ago.
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