Costa Concordia Disaster - What happened?

The comments about using compressed air are definitely a tried and proven technique for raising sunken, foundered vessels. This even works on vessels that have breached hulls on the bottom, or multiple holes. However it only works upon vessel hulls which are (or can be made) air tight. I really believe the way the CC (and all cruise ships) hull is only compartmentalized for longitudinal stability, and not vertically, the compressed air option won’t work.

The use of compressed air is NOT to inflate the ship but to displace the water from tanks that are holed below the waterline. And it typically only needs 1 or 2 PSI to accomplish this.