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By Lee Kyung-min and Kim Se-jeong
The ferry Sewol will be finally brought to the surface today, 1,073 days after it sank off the southwestern island of Jindo, government officials said Wednesday.
"We started work to raise the Sewol at 8:50 p.m., and if everything goes well, we expect parts of the ship to be lifted 13 meters above the surface at around 11 a.m., Thursday," a spokesman for the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said.
"The salvage team will work overnight. The weather is fine and the currents are not strong."
The 145-meter, 6,825-ton ferry has been lying 44 meters underwater since it sank on April 16, 2014. Among 476 passengers on board, 304 lost their lives. Nine are still unaccounted for.
The ministry said it will take at least one week to raise the entire ferry, and 13 days in total to see it transported to Mokpo Port, South Jeolla Province.
The salvage team raised the ferry from the seabed by 1 meter at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in a test lift, which began at 10:30 a.m.
"The ferry Sewol was lifted 1 meter from the seabed at around 3:30 p.m.," said Lee Cheol-jo, a ministry official supervising the team, at a press briefing on Jindo.
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As to concerns from the bereaved families of victims whose bodies have yet to be recovered, the ministry said it will promptly decide whether it is safe for investigators to enter and search the ferry once it has been recovered.
Some of the family members hope traces of the bodies of their loved ones are still inside the ferry.
"The plan is to pull the Sewol out of water and have a semisubmersible ship haul it about 87 kilometers from the site of the sinking to Mokpo Port in South Jeolla Province," Lee said.
"Then, we will conduct a thorough assessment before entering the ferry. We might have to sterilize the inside."
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During the test-lifting, the team had planned to raise the ferry up to 2 meters off the seabed by using hydraulic pressure and 66 support cables controlled by a central sensor system.
The company, under the supervision of the ministry, said the plan was to make sure the weight of the ferry was evenly distributed on the cables and that it was kept level in order to be raised safely.
The ministry said it was able to proceed with the plan amid fair weather conditions _ slow winds and a neap tide.
Raising the sunken ferry is only possible when wave heights remain below 1 meter and the wind speed is less than 10 meters per second for three consecutive days. Favorable conditions are forecast to continue until Friday.
The ministry set up a situation room near the site to closely monitor the process.
The salvage effort came three days after a successful equipment test, Sunday, which was conducted without any complications.
The ministry said all related equipment was fully prepared including the hydraulic jacks, cables and the sensor. The ministry and the company planned to test the lifting process Sunday, but stopped due to high waves.
A special eight-member committee to inspect the recovered ferry was created Tuesday. The committee will be allowed to investigate the disaster for six months including inspecting the wreck, and recovering bodies and belon
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