Drone’s eye view of giant Costa Concordia cruise ship leaving Giglio island towards scrapyard

Drones are escorting Costa Concordia providing a different point of the giant ship’s final journey to the scrapyard.

On Jan. 13, 2012 the Costa Concordia luxury cruise ship, ran aground on rocks off the Isola del Giglio Island resulting in the death of 32 people.

The wrecked ship was hauled upright last year and eventually re-floated on Jul. 14. Kept afloat by giant buoyancy chambers, it is currently being towed by dozen vessels.

The removal and the subsequent journey to the Genoa scrapyard in northwestern Italy is being filmed by drones, that provide a unique point of view on one of the biggest maritime salvage operations ever attempted.

By means of AIS (Automatic Identification System), an automatic tracking system used for identification and geo-localization of vessels that can be considered the naval homologous of the ADS-B used by airplanes you can follow the ship being towed by tug boats in real time here.

Costa Concordia maritimetraffic

Image credit: Marinetraffic.com

 

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.