Yahoo – AFP,
Hwang Sunghee, March 22, 2017
Salvage operators raised part of South Korea's sunken Sewol ferry early Thursday, Yonhap news agency reported, nearly three years after the disaster killed more than 300 people and dealt a crippling blow to now-ousted president Park Geun-Hye.
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| Barges during a salvage project to bring the sunken Sewol ferry back to surface in the sea off the southwestern island of Jindo (AFP Photo/Handout) |
Salvage operators raised part of South Korea's sunken Sewol ferry early Thursday, Yonhap news agency reported, nearly three years after the disaster killed more than 300 people and dealt a crippling blow to now-ousted president Park Geun-Hye.
Emotional
parents of victims -- the vast majority of the dead in the country's worst-ever
maritime tragedy were schoolchildren -- had earlier urged people to pray for a
successful recovery.
"As of
3:45 am (1845 GMT Wednesday), part of the Sewol's structure, which is believed
to be its stabilizer, can be seen above the water with the naked eye," an
official from the Oceans and Fisheries Ministry was quoted as saying by Yonhap
news agency.
It is
expected to take around eight days to fully raise the ship and move it to the
port of Mokpo, and another four days to move it onto a dry dock, he added.
The vessel
was lying more than 40 metres (130 feet) below the waves off southwestern South
Korea and the operation, originally scheduled for last year, had 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 Eun-Hwa," 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.
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Raising the
Sewol sunken ferry (AFP Photo/Laurence CHU , Gal ROMA)
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"I am a mother who just really misses her daughter. Please pray for us so we can go home with Eun-Hwa," 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.
"We
will be grateful if you pray with us so that the last remaining victims can
return to their families," she said, breaking down.
Other
bereaved family members have been maintaining a vigil at a camp on a hilltop on
Donggeochado, the nearest island to the site, just 1.5 kilometres away.
Yellow
ribbons -- a symbol for the victims of the disaster -- hang on nearby trees,
their colour faded by the course of time.
"My
heart is pounding," said father Jung Seong-Wook of the decision to go
ahead with the lift. "I have mixed feelings that I cannot put into words.
I'm also a little scared."
In a tense
atmosphere during the day, another father nervously watched through binoculars,
trying to get a glimpse of the operation. Some 50 bereaved family members went
out to sea by boat to watch the proceedings, he added.
Two
enormous barges were 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 were
installed by digging through the seabed underneath the wreck, which was 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 Mokpo to carry out investigations
and search for the missing.
Wilful negligence
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A monk
bowed in prayer before a memorial to victims of the Sewol ferry
disaster, at
Paengmok harbour on the southern island of Jindo (AFP
Photo/Ed Jones)
|
Wilful negligence
A senior
official from the maritime ministry said it took three hours to raise the wreck
one metre off the seabed in what was initially a feasibility test.
The
ministry then decided to go ahead with the full lifting, it said in a
statement. The operation is expected to take three days.
The
disaster and its aftermath gripped South Korea and overshadowed the presidency
of Park, who stayed at her residence for seven hours in the crucial initial
phase of the sinking.
She has
never specified what she was doing, sparking wild rumours including a tryst and
cosmetic surgery.
A permanent
Sewol protest site targeting her was subsequently set up in the centre of
Seoul, with effigies of the head of state on display alongside pictures of the
dead schoolchildren.
Negligence
over the sinking was one of the grounds for which parliament impeached Park in
December, although the constitutional court ruled that it was not an
impeachable offence when it upheld her dismissal on other charges earlier this
month.
Donggeochado
island has a population of only around 300, but the once-a-day ferry to it was
packed with reporters Wednesday and at least one broadcast truck.
Investigations
into the disaster, in which 304 people died, concluded it was largely man-made
-- the cumulative result of an illegal redesign, an overloaded cargo bay,
inexperienced crew and a questionable relationship between the ship operators
and state regulators.
Even though
the vessel took around three hours to sink, those on board were never ordered
to evacuate, while the crew escaped to safety.
Captain Lee
Jun-Seok was sentenced to life in prison for "murder through wilful
negligence" and 14 other crew members given terms ranging from two to 12
years.
South Korea's sunken Sewol ferry moves a step closer to reaching port https://t.co/cObM847pqu pic.twitter.com/9uVD4yYnhs— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 25, 2017
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