A search for the only missing body of the 32 Costa Concordia shipwreck victims will be conducted as soon as the wrecked cruise liner is towed away from the island where it struck a reef in 2012.
Franco Gabrielli, who heads the Civil Protection Department overseeing the wreck's removal, said it was a "great sorrow" the body of an Indian waiter was never found.
Gabrielli also told reporters on Giglio Island Sunday that while weather conditions aren't optimal, they are good enough to permit the start of operations to refloat and tow the Concordia to Genoa on the mainland for scrapping, reported The Associated Press.
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Delicate removal operations will start early Monday and last several days. A daring engineering operation set the capsized Concordia upright last year.
There were five main stages to be carried out before the vessel could be docked elsewhere.
First, the ship was stabilized by an anchoring system that prevented it from slipping down the steep, jagged seabed below.
Second, the salvage crew created a false bottom beneath the vessel so that while it was rotated outward it had support to prevent it from capsizing.
The third stage called for the Costa Concordia to be rotated upright.
The fourth stage was installing refloating sponsons, 395-ton compartments eased the refloating of the vessel's wreck.
And the fifth and final step of the ship's recovery effort will be the actual removal phase, in which the massive ship will be refloated away from the island of Giglio and taken to a port where police will further investigate the remains.
An international team of 500 engineers and mechanics has been working for months to save the ship.
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