Workers to pump oil from grounded liner

25 Jan 2012, 12:32 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Salvage workers are preparing to remove millions of litres of fuel from the stricken Costa Concordia before it leaks into the sea off Italy.

Equipment is attached to the toppled Costa Concordia in order to remove a 1.9 million litres of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea.

A barge carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the ship on Tuesday.

Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but teams from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were working on the bow of the Concordia and divers were to make underwater inspections to identify the precise locations of the fuel tanks.

They were at work on the now-hitched Meloria barge as divers who blasted through a submerged section of the third-floor deck located another body from the wreckage, bringing the death toll to 16.

The Concordia ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio on January 13 after the captain veered from his approved course and gashed the ship's hull on a reef, forcing the panicked evacuation of 4200 passengers and crew.

The 16 bodies found so far include the one located on the third-floor deck Tuesday. Seven of the badly decomposed bodies remain unidentified and are presumed to be among some of the 17 passengers and crew still unaccounted for.

The waters are part of a protected seven-island marine park, favoured by VIPs and known for its clear waters and porpoises, dolphins and whales.

Officials have identified an initial six fuel tanks that will be drilled into, tapped and outfitted with hoses to vacuum out the oil from the Costa Concordia.

Franco Gabrielli, head of the national civil protection agency, told reporters on Tuesday that once those initial six tanks are emptied, 50 per cent of the fuel aboard the ship will have been extracted.

The pumping will continue 24 hours a day barring rough seas or technical glitches, he said, noting that these six tanks are relatively easy to access.

Divers, meanwhile, continued blasting holes inside the steel-hulled Costa Concordia to ease access for crews searching for the missing.

The search and rescue operation will continue in tandem with the fuel removal operation.

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