Author Topic: South Korea plans feasibility study for Sewol salvage  (Read 2471 times)

Offline Hannes van Rijn

  • Top Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 12,573
    • View Profile
    • http://www.shipspotting.com/userinfo.php?uid=20488
South Korea plans feasibility study for Sewol salvage
« on: April 16, 2015, 04:06:07 AM »
South Korean government is trying to determine if it is viable to hoist the capsized ferry, Sewol, from the Yellow Sea.

During a press conference in Seoul on 13 April, the country's Minister of Public Safety and Security, Park In-yong, said he would facilitate a feasibility study.

Park In-yong's comments came a week after President Park Geun-hye and floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party said the ferry should be salvaged if it is technically feasible and that this should be done as soon as possible to bring closure to the victims' families.

However, Park In-yong also said that several issues need to be resolved before lifting Sewol from the sea.

Although a government study indicated it would be technically possible, the recovery costs must be assessed, as well as the potential dangers to the divers and salvors. There must also be a 'plan B' if the recovery fails.

Sewol capsized during a routine Incheon-Jeju trip on 16 April 2014, leaving 304 of the 476 passengers and crew dead or missing. Many of the passengers were Danwon High School students and teachers.

Nine victims whose bodies are yet to be recovered are Danwon High School teachers Yang Seung-jin and Go Chang-suk; Danwon students Huh Da-yun, Park Young-in, and Cho Eun-hwa; a female passenger, Lee Young-sook; and a father-and-son pair, Kwon Jae-geun and Kwon Hyuk-gyu.

As Sewol operator Chonghaejin Marine went defunct after the disaster, taxpayers are expected to foot the KRW620 billion (USD560 million) salvage bill.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries plans to publish a report on the matter by the end of April 2015.

In late March, the government announced a compensation package for Sewol victims and their families, but salvaging the ferry and holding an independent inquiry are more important to the families.

The families claimed that the inquiry would not be impartial as 47 of the 90-member inquiry committee would comprise officials from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and Korea Coast Guard, the very two bodies that have been under fire for botched rescue operations.

The victims' families have been staging a protest in Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul since 2 April, demanding that an ordinance authorising the probe be abolished, and on 11 April they scuffled with riot police as they tried to march to the Blue House, the presidential residence. The probe is separate from the public prosecutors' investigation that resulted in the 36-year imprisonment of Sewol captain Lee Jun-seok for abandonment and negligence on 11 November last year.


Source IHS

Offline Captain Ted

  • Top Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 8,992
    • View Profile
Re: South Korea plans feasibility study for Sewol salvage
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2015, 11:46:45 AM »
Just my view,,so guys, you don,t have to jump up and down because my view is may be not in line with the majority. :)

I wondering why it is that nowadays ,usually at any cost, salvages/searches are done
and/or planned for anything one can think off . Sewol now possible,,even the feasibility study will cost tons of money.
The malaysian flight as bad as it is,,they still search,,what they want to do,, search the globe around for anything and everything ?

Yes I hear it already how someone can say and/or bring it up, families seek closures, yes I can understand that, but are those very families are also willing to pay at least in parts for the searches or should they ?

Also when we think nowadays everything is solvable with a right klick on the pc mouse,, people have to understand that it is not !!! 
All that money wasted can be spend on much better causes, malnutrition of children around the globe for example

NOW!!!,,,if we could get rid of the sailors,,how safe shipping would be !!!!!!!!

Offline Tuomas Romu

  • Home away from home
  • ****
  • Posts: 373
    • View Profile
Re: South Korea plans feasibility study for Sewol salvage
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2015, 05:25:43 AM »
I guess the driving force is different between airplane crashes and shipwrecks. In case of the former, the investigators want to know what caused the crash and how to prevent it from the future. After all, we don't know why the plane disappeared. While we know why Sewol capsized and there isn't probably much to learn from raising the wreck, the ship itself poses a threat to shipping and environment and thus should be removed or at least emptied of anything potentially hazardous to the marine life. In case of Sewol, the ship is not even in deep water, so it could be raised by using the same method that they used to chop down Tricolor a few years back.

Sure, it's always possible to find bigger problems and you could use the hungry children of Africa as an argument against any spending anywhere in the world. When you bought a new camera to take photographs of ships, didn't it even cross your mind that there are children in Africa who don't have food... ;)

Offline Timsen

  • Top Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 678
    • View Profile
Re: South Korea plans feasibility study for Sewol salvage
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2015, 07:37:29 AM »
I agree to Captain Ted. The plan to raise the "Sewol" is obviously based on the protests of relatives and not because of possible environmental or navigational threats. But regarding the fact that the chance is slim to find more bodies after the throrough search of the wreckage and the risk that more lives may be endangered or lost in a tricky salvage, I cannot really understand the sense either. If the bodies are still trapped inside, the ship is a sea grave like uncountable other wrecks too. Why spend money in such a suerfluous operation?

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk