The Costa Concordia is freed in the salvage process that began today, and in the latest updates there is no sign of the last 2 missing victims from the 2012 wreck that killed 32 people.

Engineer Sergio Girotto told reporters that the cameras did not immediately reveal any sign of the two bodies from the last two missing victims of the 32 people who died January 13, 2012, when the Concordia slammed into a reef and toppled half-submerged on its side after coming too close to Giglio Island, CBS News reports.

The salvage process is considered one the most complex and costly maritime salvage operations ever attempted, NBC News reports.

The Costa Concordia is about two-and-a-half times the size of the Titanic, and no one wants to see it split apart, reports CBS News' Sabina Castelfranco.

The entire salvage process and rotation were originally expected to last about 12 hours. But as evening approached, work was clearly falling behind schedule. Some seven hours after the rotation attempt began, the Concordia had moved upward only by a total of 10 degrees, CBS News reports.

"It's taking longer than expected," Girotto said in a late afternoon briefing. "Even if it's 15 to 18 hours, we're OK with that. We are happy with the way things are going."

According to NBC News, thunderstorms and lightning delayed the operation by around two hours.

Images snapped by robotic diving vehicles indicated that the submerged side of the cruise ship's hull had suffered "great deformation" from the two years it has spent on the granite seabed, battered by waves and compressed under the weight of the ship's 115,000 tons, Girotto said, according to CBS News.

The goal is to raise the ship 65 degrees to a vertical position, and then eventually tow the Costa Concordia. The initial operation to lift the Concordia from the reef moved the ship just 3 degrees toward vertical.