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Risk and worry await S. Korea work to lift doomed ferry

FILE - In this April 16, 2014 file photo, South Korean rescue helicopters fly over South Korean ferry Sewol, trying to rescue passengers from the ship in waters off the southern coast of Jindo, South Korea. Salvaging the corroded, the 6,800-ton ferry Sewol from deep beneath a channel notorious for dangerous currents will be difficult, expensive and potentially risky. It will also be one more major headache for a government already reeling from accusations that its incompetence and corruption were partly responsible for the 304 people killed when the ship sank a year ago. Experts say lifting the Sewol will prove much harder than previous efforts around the world to salvage giant ships, which sometimes ended up costing much more than originally estimated. There are questions about whether the South Korean government should be spending the estimated $91 million to $137 million needed to salvage the ferry, and there are worries about the decision to pull the ship up in one piece, rather than chopping it into sections. (Yonhap via AP, File) KOREA OUT
FILE - In this April 16, 2014 file photo, South Korean rescue helicopters fly over South Korean ferry Sewol, trying to rescue passengers from the ship in waters off the southern coast of Jindo, South Korea. Salvaging the corroded, the 6,800-ton ferry Sewol from deep beneath a channel notorious for dangerous currents will be difficult, expensive and potentially risky. It will also be one more major headache for a government already reeling from accusations that its incompetence and corruption were partly responsible for the 304 people killed when the ship sank a year ago. Experts say lifting the Sewol will prove much harder than previous efforts around the world to salvage giant ships, which sometimes ended up costing much more than originally estimated. There are questions about whether the South Korean government should be spending the estimated $91 million to $137 million needed to salvage the ferry, and there are worries about the decision to pull the ship up in one piece, rather than chopping it into sections. (Yonhap via AP, File) KOREA OUT

By Associated Press 5 min read

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Salvaging the corroded, 6,800-ton ferry Sewol from deep beneath a channel notorious for dangerous currents will be difficult, expensive and potentially risky. It will also be one more major headache for a government already reeling from accusations that its incompetence and corruption were partly responsible for the 304 people killed when the ship sank a year ago.

Experts say lifting the Sewol will prove much harder than previous efforts around the world to salvage giant ships, which sometimes ended up costing much more than originally estimated. There are questions about whether the South Korean government should be spending the estimated $91 million to $137 million needed to salvage the ferry, and there are worries about the decision to pull the ship up in one piece, rather than chopping it into sections.

Complicating decisions on how to conduct the salvage job are the still-raw emotions surrounding the April 2014 sinking. Most of the victims were teenagers from a single high school on a field trip to a southern resort island, and nine bodies have yet to be recovered.

Relatives of the victims hope that lifting the entire ship at once might reveal those bodies, along with new details about what happened. Slicing the ferry up would make salvage easier, experts say, but it could also damage any bodies still in the ship or allow them to be swept away.

Some doubt that any bodies could still be in the vessel. Divers spent several months picking their way through the ship, now 44 meters (144 feet) below the sea surface.