Cruise Ship Sinking: Elderly Woman's Body is 16th Recovered on Costa Concordia

Italian officials said Tuesday that divers found a 16th body on the Costa Concordia, the Italian cruise ship that is sinking off the small island of Giglio.

The body is said to be that on an elderly woman. She was wearing a life jacket, according to Reuters.

The luxury cruise liner capsized off the Tuscan coast Jan. 13, and salvage crews are expected to begin pumping thousands of tons of fuel from the wreck by Saturday.

Reuters reported that over 2,300 tons of diesel oil must be removed from the Costa Concordia's 17 fuel tanks in order to prevent an environmental disaster in Italy's water. The crews were making preparations Tuesday for extracting the oil when divers found the body of the elderly woman.

Approximately 16 others remain missing on the half-submerged vessel. Nine victims have been identified so far.

The New York Times reported that salvage and rescue workers have reported seeing the first signs of a very thin film of contaminant oozing from the partly submerged vessel.

That reported noted that Smit, a Dutch salvage company, has been hired to extract the fuel from the ship.

The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest. He is being accused of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before completing the evacuation of more than 4,200 passengers and crew.