Raised Sewol ferry loaded onto transport vessel, completing most difficult phase of its recovery
Bringing the Sewol back to the port in Mokpo would be a step toward finding closure to one of South Korea’s deadliest disasters
Salvage crews towed a corroded 6,800-tonne South Korean ferry and loaded it onto a semi-submersible transport vessel on Saturday, completing what was seen as the most difficult part of the massive effort to bring the ship back to shore nearly three years after it sank.
Government officials say it will take a week or two to bring the vessel to a port 90km away so investigators can search for the remains of nine missing people who were among the 304 who died when the Sewol capsized on April 16, 2014.
Most of the victims were students on a high school trip, touching off an outpouring of national grief and soul searching about long-ignored public safety and regulatory failures. Public outrage over what was seen as a botched rescue job by the government contributed to the recent ouster of Park Geun-hye as president.
“We just got over one hump ... we are trying hard to stay calm,” Lee Geum-hee, the mother of a missing schoolgirl, told a television crew.
Bringing the Sewol back to the port in Mokpo would be a step toward finding closure to one of South Korea’s deadliest disasters. Once the ferry reaches land, government officials say it will take about a month for the ship to be cleaned and evaluated for safety.
Investigators will then enter the wreckage and begin a three-month search for the remains of the missing victims and for clues further illuminating the cause of the sinking, which has been blamed on overloaded cargo, improper storage and other negligence.
Workers on two barges began the salvaging operation on Wednesday night, rolling up 66 cables connected to a frame of metal beams divers spent months placing beneath the ferry, which had been lying on its left side under 44 metres of water.