Convincing plans needed for search and hoisting of sunken ferry

Vice Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Kim Young-seok said on Wednesday, “Technical review is being conducted as hoisting the sunken Sewol ferry can be considered as an alternative when the search operations of victims hit the limit.” Although his remarks contain the conditional premise, it was the first time that the government carefully mentioned about possible termination of search operations. On the contrary, Minister Lee Joo-young said on Monday, “The sunken ferry will be lifted up only after underwater search operations are completed.” Even though it was a subtle difference, it is questionable why the government implies the possibility of terminating search operations and salvaging the sunken ferry. If the government wanted to test the water with public opinion, it cannot be seen as responsible way of work.

Since the Sewol ferry tragedy, 294 dead bodies have been recovered in 144 days. Ten people still remain missing but there has been no further recovery since July 18. During the period, divers have been searching all spaces of the sunken ferry several times except for one room (SP1). As the room’s walls were broken down, it remains unsearched space in the ferry due to the operation to remove obstacles. The Pan-Government Accident Response Center is not able to forecast when the search operation can be put to an end, as the ferry’s internal structures and materials are collapsing and temperature is going down.

For the bereaved families, it would be hard to give up search operations thinking their sons and daughters remain under the cold sea. So far, 10 search operators including two divers and five fire fighters lost their lives. At this moment, around 100 persons including the Navy and marine police and civilians participate in the search operations in the accident area every day. However, the ministry keeps silence when asked about what to do, if there are still missing victims after searching in the ferry is finished. The international Search and Rescue (SAR) treaty defines the time limit for the search operations on sunken vessels as ‘until all reasonable hope for survivors’ rescue is lost.’ Therefore, now is the time to discuss how to wrap up the unprecedented search operation in the maritime disaster history and when to move on to the next step.

The government, local governments, bereaved families and the public should put their heads together to decide whether to life up the sunken ferry, or to designate the accident area as an underwater grave and build a memorial park for commemoration and disaster awareness. It takes longer than one year to pull up the sunken ferry and the cost is estimated to be at 400-500 billion won (390 million-490 million U.S. dollars). The government needs to provide concrete and convincing future actions by gathering experts’ opinions on the probability to recover more dead bodies when hoisting the vessel.