Divers abandon search for missing at Italy cruise ship wreck

What a mess! Very sad indeed.

They quit so early. They need gaman like the Japanese hunting for missing bodies in the Pacific after the tsunami took them hundreds or thousands of miles out to sea.

MaboDofulsSpicy: Conditions in the ship and conditions off the coast of Japan after the tsunami are COMPLETELY different, and while it is sad they are cutting off the search for the MOST part (they're still searching the parts above water), I'm not sure there's anything else they can do. They are searching in corridors completely flooded with rough freezing waters, and full of all sorts of crap floating around that could crash into and kill them, not to mention the precarious balance of the ship -- if it slid off the island while they were in there they might not be able to get out. You really can't compare the two at all, save that both involve water.

So again, it's sad, but I'm not really sure what else they can do.

If the wreck topples of the cliff where it is currently balancing, and falls 110 metres to the bottom of the sea, it would mean death for every diver in the wreck, and most of the surface workers. The sudden pressurization, the need for a totally different gas mixture at that depth, and the prolonged decompression time for anyone to make it to the surface would be virtually impossible to manage. That also assumes that the ship itself did not crush or distort, and people were not injured by debris and the ship's structure. I've dived in wrecks, even new ones, and know firsthand how dirty they are inside; the sharp edges and fittings that can cut you open or snag your life line. It's not like Hollywood with bright lights and clean water...

The head of the consumer association group Codacons, which is taking part in a class action lawsuit against Carnival Corp and Costa Crociere, said it had requested that the wreck be removed within 30 days.

Good luck with THAT request. They have to pump out the heavy fuel oil while replacing it with seawater so the vessel doesn't get lighter and shift, slap a patch on the gash in the hull, re-float the hull, then pump out most of the water inside before towing it away. It's going to probably take longer than 30 days before the ship is gone.

Wanderlust has done what few others ever have at JT with a simple comment ...added information and perspective.