RoK to salvage Sewol ferry

The Sewol was carrying 476 people when it took a sharp turn and capsized off the southwestern island of Jindo on April 16th, 2014, with the loss of 304 lives.

Of those who died, 250 were students from Dawon high school in Ansan, some 30 kilometers south of Seoul. 

The government hopes to start salvaging the ferry from April 5th at the earliest and tow the vessel to a nearby port by the 3rd anniversary of the disaster on April 16th.

The work could be delayed, depending on the weather. Bad weather has hampered salvage efforts in the past./.

Sewol was a RoPax ferry that was built by the Japanese company Hayashikane Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. in 1994. At 146m (479 ft) in length and 22m (72 ft) in width, she could carry 921 passengers, or a total of 956 persons, including the crew. It had a legal capacity for 180 vehicles and 154 regular cargo containers. The maximum speed of the ship was 22knots (41km/h; 25 mph), connecting Incheon and Jeju island.