Costa Concordia Is Righted

The unprecedented operation to right the crippled cruise liner the Costa Concordia and lift it from its side ended successfully. CNN's Matthew Chance reports .

Salvage crews worked through the night to hoist the 114,000 ton vessel upright, twenty months after it ran aground off the Italian coast, killing 32 people of 4,200 aboard.

Franco Porcellacchia, head of the operation's technical team said, 'It was a perfect operation, I would say."

Though the $800 million salvage operation effort took much longer than expected, first delayed when a violent electrical storm battered the island. The process took 19  hours in total.

A team of engineers monitored every move as the ship emerged from the sea inch by inch and onlookers could measure the progress made by the line of scum embedded in the waterlogged Concordia's side.

Despite the painstakingly slow removal procedure, the people of Giglio are waking up relieved that the deteriorating vessel is once again floating-  and will soon be taken away.

TO SEE A TIMELAPSE OF THE PROCESS: