VIDEO Sewol ferry placed upright 4 years after the tragedy

A bereaved family member of a victim of the Sewol disaster watches the vessel being lifted upright at Mokpo New Port, 410 kilometers southwest of Seoul, Thursday. The ferry sank off the southwestern coast on April 16, 2014, leaving 304 people, mostly high school students, dead. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Jung Da-min

The wreck of the ferry Sewol was lifted upright Thursday, clearing the ground for a further search for the remains of still missing victims and an investigation into the root cause of the maritime disaster.

The 6,825-ton vessel carrying 476 passengers capsized off the southwestern coast on April 16, 2014, leaving 304 people ― most of them high school students on a field trip to Jeju Island ― dead. The remains of five victims are still unaccounted for.

The three-hour operation to right the ferry began at 9 a.m. at Mokpo New Port, 410 kilometers southwest of Seoul, using a 10,000-ton-capacity maritime crane from Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries manned by salvage workers. Bereaved families watched the rusted hull of the ship placed in an upright position gradually in six steps by raising it by 10 degrees through 94.5 degrees.

The Sewol was hoisted from the seabed last year and transferred to the port facility. Since then, the bodies of four out of the then nine missing have been recovered in three searches.

“The righting process has now been completed, as the angle between the Sewol and the ground reached 94.5 degrees,” said Yoo Young-ho, managing director of Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.

According to the company, 94.5 degrees, not 90, was the right angle to balance the ship.

For the operation, Hyundai installed 33 vertical and 33 horizontal beams that were connected by wires to the crane.

With the ship being righted, the search for the missing remains will gain momentum.

The salvaged ship is being placed in an upright position. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

The below-decks engine room area and a room on the fourth deck can now be searched. So far, searches have been impossible due to the possibility of bulkhead collapses.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said it will begin searches for the remains in the middle of next month now that the hull is fully righted. It will be finished by early August, it noted.

After three weeks of preparations to secure holes made in the hull and put in bracing structures, workers will start searching inside over the following five weeks, the Sewol investigation committee said.

“How and where to preserve the hull will be decided on in July at the earliest,” said Kim Chang-joon, head of the committee.

“Whether it will involve conservation in its current state or something more symbolic has not been decided on yet. We are currently collecting opinions from experts.”