Test-lift of sunken ferry begins
DONGGEOCHADO (South Korea): Salvage operators began a test-lift of South Korea’s sunken Sewol ferry, officials said, nearly three years after the disaster killed 304 people and dealt a crippling blow to now-ousted president Park Geunhye.
Emotional parents of victims – the vast majority of the dead in the country’s worst-ever maritime tragedy were schoolchildren – urged people to pray for a successful recovery.
The vessel lies more than 40m below the waves off southwestern South Korea and the operation, originally scheduled for last year, has been pushed back several times because of adverse weather.
It is thought that nine bodies still unaccounted for may be trapped inside the sunken ship, and raising the ferry intact has been a key demand of the victims’ families.
“I am a mother who just really misses her daughter. Please pray for us so we can go home with EunHwa,” said Lee Keum-hui, one of a handful of relatives who have been living in makeshift homes at Paengmok, the closest port to the wreck, since the accident.
Other bereaved family members have been maintaining a vigil at a camp on a hilltop on Donggeochado, the nearest island to the site, just 1.5km away.
“We will not clear the camp even when the ‘Sewol’ is raised,” a victim’s father said.
Two enormous barges have been positioned on either side of the 6,825-tonne ship and air bags inserted for the salvage effort, which is being led by a Chinese consortium.
Beams have been installed by digging through the seabed underneath the wreck, which is lying on its side, and cables attached to bring it painstakingly towards the surface.
Once two-thirds of it is exposed, a semi-submersible will be positioned underneath to raise it out of the water and transport it to the port of Mokpo to carry out investigations and search for the missing. — AFP