In 2014, a major accident occurred in South Korea that shocked China and the rest of the world.
The super-large passenger and cargo steamer Sewol, weighing 6,825 tons, carrying 476 passengers and 987 tons of cargo, sank to the bottom of the sea.
At the same time, the lives of 296 South Korean students were also taken.
After the accident was exposed, it caused a huge public opinion around the world, lamenting the casualties and reprimanding the South Korean government for its inaction.
Before the Sewol accident, the South Korean Coast Guard had many chances to rescue all the passengers on board.
But they even organized a nearby merchant ship to organize a rescue, which eventually led to the death of 296 students.
The most unacceptable thing is that after the sinking of the Sewol, Park Geun-hye, as the president, mysteriously disappeared for 7 hours.
All kinds of abnormal behaviors indicate that the sinking of the Sewol is not simple.
Some people even associate it with the word "sacrifice".
Is this a natural disaster or a man-made disaster?
After the accident, why did the South Korean Coast Guard behave so unusually?
What exactly is Park Geun-hye doing in the seven hours since she disappeared?
Today, we are going to talk about this shipwreck that caused a sensation around the world.
Speaking of the Sewol, it is not actually a Korean ship, but a Japanese ship.
In 2012, a cargo ship was decommissioned in Japan, and was later bought by South Korea's Aomi Town Shipping Company and renamed the Sewol.
After the Qinghai Company bought it, it renovated the ship and converted it into a dual use for passenger and commercial transportation.
In order to accommodate more visitors, the staff converted the top deck of the hull into guest rooms, and the original second-class rooms into cargo cabins.
In this way, the Sewol increased its passenger capacity to 960 passengers, but it also caused the ship's center of gravity to move up by half a meter, disrupting the balance between the left and right.
This greatly increases the possibility of an accident at sea.
These modifications were originally illegal in South Korea, and the Sewol was not allowed to go to sea at all, but it still became a commercial passenger ship.
As for the reason, it is nothing more than the collusion between the Qinghai Company and the staff to finally legalize the Sewol through power-for-money transactions.
The accident occurred on April 16, 2014, the day before 330 high school students and teachers happily boarded the Sewol.
Together, they will embark on a four-day graduation trip to bring their high school life to a perfect end.
But what they didn't expect was that it was not their study career that came to an end, but their life.
In addition to the students and crew, the ship was loaded with 2,142 tons of cargo, plus tourists and crew members, a total of 476 people, and it went out to sea.
The evening was calm and nothing happened.
In their rooms, students chatted boredly about how to plan their four-day graduation trip.
At this time, everyone realized that death was quietly coming to them.
At around 8:48 a.m. the next day, the hull suddenly shook violently, accompanied by a "boom".
At first, the students didn't pay attention to it, thinking it was a small bump, but soon, the entire hull began to tilt.
Many students were thrown against the wall, and some were even smashed to the point that their heads were bleeding and fell into a coma.
The students finally realized that something was not quite right, and just as they wanted to go out to see what was going on, they heard the captain announce the announcement.
"All passengers, please don't move, stay put, and wait for rescue!"
Hearing the captain's calm voice, everyone calmed down, after all, the captain is professional, he said that if there is rescue, someone will definitely come to save them.
Only a handful of passengers realized that something was wrong and chose to flee on their own, and eventually survived.
The first person to notice that there was not much to do was a student named Cui Dexia.
At first, he, like other classmates, stayed in the cabin and waited for the coast guard to rescue him.
But soon, he realized that something was not quite right, the Sewol was not far from the port, and it was supposed that the rescue team should have arrived a long time ago.
At this time, the hull tilt angle has reached 30 degrees, and the students can barely stand, continue to wait, and it is very likely that they will explain here.
Listening to the cold "stay put" request from the captain's room, Cui Dexia decided to save himself, and after discussing with several classmates, he broke away from the large army.
And in the end, it was precisely these students who saved themselves, and the other students who obeyed the captain to stand by on the spot, all sank to the bottom of the sea with the Sewol.
To this day, Cui Dexia still has lingering palpitations when he mentions the events of that year.
He couldn't understand why the rescue team gave up the rescue and watched his classmates and teachers sink to the bottom of the sea in vain.
So what were the rescue teams doing when the Sewol accident?
You may not believe it, but they arrived at the scene about 50 minutes after the accident.
But instead of immediately launching a rescue, they stood by in place.
Five minutes after the accident, the Jeju Air Traffic Control Center received a distress signal from the passenger ship.
"The hull of the ship is sinking, please go to the rescue immediately!"
At this time, the Sewol was only a few hundred meters away from the nearest land, but in the first half hour, it did not make it all the way to the scene.
It wasn't until 9:40 a.m. that 60 coast guards, seven warships and helicopters were dispatched to the rescue, including seven civilian merchant ships.
By around 10:20 a.m., search and rescue teams had rescued about 150 passengers, but more than 300 students were still trapped in the cabin.
However, the coast guard did not send a rescue team to the cabin to rescue the ship, but chose to stand by and wait for the students on the ship to come out on their own.
Even while waiting, they happily ate instant noodles on the boat, ignoring the lives of the students on board.
So where is the captain who keeps the students on standby?
In fact, as early as the first moment of the accident, the captain ran to the deck with the crew and even drank beer happily.
After the search and rescue team arrived at the scene as soon as possible, they took the captain and crew to a safe position, and then watched the rescue team busy at the scene.
The search and rescue team waited for the students to climb out of the boat by themselves, and the captain asked the students to stand by on the spot.
In the end, due to the inaction of the rescue team, only 172 people were rescued from the Sewol, 296 people were confirmed dead, and 8 people were missing.
Of those, only 50 were rescued by the coast guard, while the other 100 were rescued by nearby merchant ships.
Most of the 50 people climbed out of the cabin on their own, just like Cui Dexia, and were then pulled onto the rescue boat.
The merchant ship could have saved more students, but when they wanted to continue to save people, the coast guard refused their request on the grounds that they did not want to obstruct the rescue.
In this way, everyone watched as the Sewol slowly sank to the bottom of the sea carrying 296 people.
There are many theories about the cause of the accident.
Some people believe that in the process of transformation, the safety factor of the Sewol itself has been greatly reduced.
The ship carried 987 tons, but on the day of the accident, it carried 2,142 tons of cargo, which is equivalent to twice the load.
In order to carry more cargo, the crew also discharged more than 900 tons of ballast water to carry the cargo.
This greatly reduces the stability of the hull and makes it easy to shake or tilt.
At the time of the accident, the Sewol was making a sharp turn.
During the turn, the hull tilted, and a large amount of cargo was dumped to one side, causing the entire hull to lose its balance.
The hull began to tilt and the captain was unable to control the rudder, which eventually caused the entire hull to roll over and sink to the bottom of the sea.
In addition to this, there is also a theory that the Sewol was rammed by a submarine.
Because before the accident, the captain found a huge object behind the hull.
I thought it was a dropped cargo, but it was found to be unusually large in size, with steering ability and power, and it was speculated that it might be a submarine.
Due to the impact of the submarine, the Sewol suddenly turned and the center of gravity was unstable, which eventually led to the occurrence of a rollover.
But this statement was quickly denied by the South Korean military.
The military said there were no military exercises in the area that day, and there were no submarines patrolling nearby, so it could not have been caused by submarines.
Both reasons were denied, and at this point a voice began to appear on the Internet.
The rollover of the Sewol is not a natural disaster, but a man-made one, and it is a "sacrifice" held by religion.
Because on the day of the incident, too many unreasonable things happened.
The first is the Sewol's own rescue system.
As a large passenger and cargo merchant ship, the Sewol has a very complete rescue system.
With 44 lifeboats and 4 sets of sea evacuation systems, it can accommodate more than 2,000 people in total, allowing everyone to escape.
But after the accident, only two lifeboats were opened, and the others were idle, which is somewhat unreasonable.
After the accident, the ATC also asked the first officer.
"Is it possible to let the passengers leave in a lifeboat?"
And the response was: "There are too many people on this ship, so it can't be!"
It can be seen that the captain did not know about the rescue system on this merchant ship, which is obviously somewhat abnormal.
The captains of merchant ships are basically fixed, running for a long time, and the life-saving system is the basis for the survival of the crew and passengers, how can the captain not understand?
This was because the captain of the Sewol was swapped during the voyage and replaced by a rookie captain who knew nothing about the ship.
Such abnormal behavior is enough to show that there must be something wrong with this matter.
You must know that on the day when the Sewol was preparing to go to sea, there was a thick fog in the port, and all ships were restricted from traveling, and only the Sewol sailed out of the port.
Isn't the life of the other passengers the life of the Sewol not the life of the Sewol passengers?
Or is it that their fate has been sealed from the beginning, and this is a voyage that is destined to reach no end?
Of course, these are just anomalies, and it seems far-fetched to associate the Sewol with "religion" and "sacrifice".
In fact, the most abnormal in this incident is South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
It stands to reason that if such a big thing happens, she should personally direct the rescue.
But she disappeared for 7 hours at the most critical moment, and these 7 hours were enough to decide the fate of these 300 students.
So what the hell did she do? There are two theories.
One is to go for beauty.
Park Geun-hye has always been very conscious of her image, and during her reign, she has been doing cosmetic injections and facial micro-adjustment surgeries.
A few days after the Sewol accident, some media found that there were obvious bruises on the corners of her mouth.
It is reported that Park Geun-hye will register beauty injections every 1-2 weeks to maintain her delicate face.
A doctor who operated on Ms. Park also said that seven days after the sinking of the Sewol, she came to the hospital again to be injected with cosmetic injections.
This also indicates that she was most likely injected on the day of the accident.
Another way to say it is to go for hair.
According to media reports, Park Geun-hye called a barber to the Blue House for a 90-minute haircut and beauty treatment on the day of the Sewol shipwreck.
It's hard to imagine that this is what a president can do, and when the lives of the people are dying, she chooses to be greedy.
But then this claim was denied by the person concerned, who admitted to staying at the Blue House for about an hour, but only 20 minutes to get his hair done.
Neither of these acts can explain the seven hours that Park Geun-hye disappeared.
After all, neither beauty nor hair does it take such a long time.
It wasn't until later, with the media's deep investigation, that it was revealed what Park Geun-hye had done in the past 7 hours.
She neither went for beauty nor hair, but had a secret meeting with her best friend Cui Shunshi.
It was this meeting that became the fundamental reason why netizens speculated that 300 students were "sacrificed".
It is reported that the day of the sinking of the Sewol is the 20th anniversary of the death of Choi Soon-sil's father, Choi Tae-min.
Who is Choi Tae-min? He is the head of the Korean religious group "Eternal Religion."
The teachings of this religion say, "You can regain your original body and become a god by reciting the Buddha of Compassion!"
Park Geun-hye and Choi Tae-min have a close relationship.
In 1974, Ms. Park's mother was assassinated, leaving her and her father, Park Chung-hee, who was South Korea's president at the time.
He has a very good relationship with Cui Taimin, and Cui Taimin's "Eternal Religion" was established with his support.
After the death of her mother, Park Geun-hye was very disappointed.
At this time, Choi Tae-min took advantage of the situation, and he began to imitate the demeanor and movements of Park Geun-hye's mother.
Under his lively performance, he soon won the favor of Park Geun-hye, and even thought that Choi Tae-min was the reincarnation of his mother.
At this time, Choi Tae-min arranged for his daughter Choi Soon-sil to get close to Park Geun-hye, and the two soon became good friends.
Later, Ms. Park's father was assassinated by a senior C.I.A. official.
Because the other party thinks that Park Chung-hee is too dependent on Choi Tae-min and is suspected of corruption.
So far, Park Geun-hye's parents have been assassinated, and Choi Tae-min has become her only relative in this world.
For a long time after that, the relationship between the two was very good, and Park Geun-hye still recognized each other as her godfather.
The relationship between the two, Park Geun-hye was once suspected by the media of being Choi Taiming's mistress.
But after that, Cui Taimin stood up and denied: "She and I are just a spiritual couple, and we have no physical relationship!"
This relationship lasted until May 1, 1994, when Choi Tae-min died.
But there are also rumors on the Internet that Cui Taimin's real time of death was April 27, 1994, that is, March 17 of the lunar calendar.
Interestingly, the day of the Sewol accident was April 16, 2014, which happened to be March 17 of the lunar calendar.
Therefore, some people speculate that the reason why Park Geun-hye disappeared for seven hours was because she held some kind of mysterious "sacrifice ceremony" with her best friend.
The Qinghai Town Shipping Company, to which the Sewol belongs, is also not ordinary, and the boss behind it is named Yu Bingyan, who is the founder of the Korean religious "rescue faction".
This church was responsible for the 1987 "Five Seas Mass Suicide".
The purpose of the sect is: "Whatever you have done, as long as you have been redeemed by God, then you will be forgiven!"
It was he who, on the day of the Saiwol's sailing, temporarily changed the captain and crew.
Some netizens speculated that the captain and crew were likely to be members of the "rescue faction".
Everything is connected to form a perfect closure, and everything is too coincidental.
It's no wonder that netizens speculate that the more than 300 students on the Sewol have become Cui Taimin's sacrifices.
Of course, all this is speculation, unconfirmed, until Park Geun-hye is imprisoned, and it has become a mystery that will never be solved.
It wasn't until 2015 that the Sewol incident once again attracted global attention.
After the sinking of the Sewol, the families of the deceased have been asking the South Korean government to salvage the sunken ship as soon as possible so that they can see the child's body.
Therefore, South Korea is under tremendous pressure, and in their own capabilities, did not complete the technology of salvaging the Sewol.
So they took out 500 million yuan and began to bid for global bidding, and 27 countries have responded, including China.
But because the price is too low, most countries have retreated, and only China has taken over this difficult bone.
In August 2015, China and South Korea signed an agreement, and the salvage work officially began.
South Korea has only two requirements.
1. When the Sewol comes out of the water, it must be kept in the state when it sank, so as to ensure that the remains of the corpse will not be destroyed.
2. The structure of the ship cannot be damaged, and the integrity must be guaranteed.
It's difficult, but it's not impossible.
It is reported that the Sewol is 145 meters long, 14 meters high, and has a total weight of more than 10,000 tons.
Before launching the water, the Chinese staff had learned about the underwater situation from South Korea, but in practice, they still encountered problems.
The underwater situation is completely different from what the South Korean staff said.
South Korea said that the bottom of the sea was full of silt that could be easily dug up, but when it was launched, it was found that it was all hard rock layers.
The plan could not be implemented, and in order to avoid complications, China dispatched an underwater remotely controlled unmanned underwater vehicle.
And sent 100 divers to start a comprehensive survey of the underwater situation.
Eventually, using sonar, China was able to draw a concrete model of the Sewol.
Then the protective net and rope length were designed, and the steel rope was intended to be used to pull the entire boat up.
In order to avoid environmental pollution, the Chinese side also deliberately pumped up the residual oil from the ship and stuffed airbags and rubber pontoons into the ship to increase buoyancy and reduce weight.
In order to cope with the rocks at the bottom of the ship, the Chinese side also used new technology.
The first-of-its-kind trenching system can make a cut in the hard rock, making the whole salvage process smoother.
Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed, but in the process of lifting, there is still an accident.
Because the boat was too heavy, the water flow was unstable when lifting, and the steel cables broke one after another.
In desperation, the Chinese side could only use the preparatory plan, adding springs to the steel cables to increase the buffering effect, and finally fished out the Sewol in its entirety.
During the entire salvage process, the Chinese side invested a total of 20 large ships, worked underwater for 13,000 hours, and consumed more than 5,000 tons of steel.
In the end, not only did they spend 500 million yuan in South Korea's salvage fees, but they even lost 1.1 billion yuan, and finally completed all the work.
China has once again created a miracle, but it is true that it is losing money, but it is not all bad, and in the end it is a windfall.
Throughout the salvage process, the Chinese side used a lot of new technology, which was verified on the Sewol.
Therefore, if the same situation is encountered in the future, the salvage process will become more seamless, greatly reducing time and costs.
In this way, the salvage of the Sewol has become an opportunity for us to practice, which cannot be measured by money.
After the Sewol ship was salvaged, the body was properly placed, and the Sewol shipwreck was truly closed.