Sewol loaded onto semisubmersible ship
Ferry to be taken to Mokpo Port next week
Salvage operators were loading the Sewol ferry onto a semisubmersible ship late into Friday night — the final task before heading to land.
“We are racing against time,” said Lee Cheol-jo, an official from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, who is in charge of the operation. “With strong tidal currents expected in the area Saturday, the workers have to do everything correctly to finish the job hopefully before midnight.”
He said uploading the ferry onto a semisubmersible ship is the trickiest part of the operation, requiring good weather conditions.
The workers plan to finish the job before March 24, the last day of the neap tide period around the area. The next neap is not until April 5.
Lee said the rest of the operation will not be as vulnerable to weather conditions.
The semisubmersible ship will take the 6,825-ton ferry to Mokpo Port next week.
The sunken ferry was lifted from the depths, Thursday, nearly three years after it sank and left 304 people dead on April 16, 2014, in Korea’s worst maritime disaster.
The ministry believes search operations for the nine missing bodies can begin after the ferry is moved to a dry dock near the port early next month.
At around 11:10 a.m., Friday, salvage operators successfully raised the upper part of the ferry’s hull to the target height (13 meters out of the sea) after overcoming a technical problem. Then it was tied to two jacking barges with wires.
The raising of the ferry was delayed for nearly a day as a ramp on the left rear side has been hanging down underwater impeding the operation. But salvage workers cut it off at 6:45 a.m. and continued.
Five tow boats tied with the barges and the ferry set off at 4 p.m. for a semisubmersible ship floating in the calmer area, which was 3 kilometers southeast from the sinking site.
After placing the ferry safely on the semisubmersible ship, workers have to untie the ropes from the barges and bind them to the semisubmersible ship, which is expected to take two or three days to finish.
The victims’ families nervously watched the operation on television at their memorial altar set up at Paengmok Harbor on Jindo, an island a few kilometers from the operation sites.
Lee Keum-hui, the mother of Cho Eun-hwa, one of the missing people, urged the ministry to pay more attention to prevent the remains of the victims from being lost in the water.
Divers will search for any remains left near the sinking site soon after the ferry leaves there. The ministry noted underwater fences surrounding the area have been set up.
The victims’ families have also asked the ministry not to damage any parts of the ferry. They are worried this could result in losing evidence for finding out the exact cause of the disaster, which still remains a mystery.
But Vice Minister Yoon Hag-bae made it clear the ministry will not stop salvage workers from damaging the ferry if it is unpreventable for search operations later.
The recovery project was pushed back several times because of political instability and adverse weather conditions. Efforts to raise the ferry, which had been lying on its side at a depth of 44 meters, began Wednesday.
The disaster and its aftermath gripped the nation and overshadowed former President Park Geun-hye, who has not explained exactly what she was doing for the crucial first seven hours of the sinking.
Park was impeached over a major influence-peddling scandal involving her confidant Choi Soon-sil earlier this month and is now subject to prosecution for corruption and other charges.