It is a tragic tragedy that has befallen such a tragic devastation to those innocent children. On April 16, 2014, the South Korean passenger ship Sewol sank in the sea about 3 kilometers from Guanmei Island, and only 172 people survived, regrettably, 296 people were unfortunately killed, and another 8 people are still missing.
The passenger ship carried 325 high school graduates and 151 teachers, who were supposed to start a new life, but at this moment, their fortunes changed dramatically.
The shipwreck shocked the world and sparked anger among the South Korean public, and as the investigation deepened, the inside story of the accident gradually surfaced, and even the rescue efforts were problematic.
As a result, conspiracy theories and sacrificial theories are rampant, and the families of the victims march every day to demand that the state recover the remains of their children as soon as possible. However, South Korea did not officially begin salvage work until three years later, and China's Shanghai Salvage Bureau encountered a series of problems when it took over the project.
Although the "Sewol" was finally salvaged, the mainland lost 1.1 billion yuan and did not even make money.
Why did the Sewol shipwreck attract global attention? Why did the mainland suffer 1.1 billion yuan in losses during the salvage process? This incident is full of doubts, including "Why didn't the lifeboat be used?"
"Where did Park Geun-hye go? What was she doing when the children were killed?" Some even questioned that "this is a cult conspiracy to sacrifice students!" In April 2014, the Sewol shipwreck occurred, and 296 lives disappeared into the sea.
As the investigation deepened, this seemingly unexpected accident became more and more thought-provoking.
First of all, the public found that the rescue team had arrived at the scene, and the passenger ship had not completely sunk at that time, but they had not taken effective rescue measures, and even stopped the fishing boat that had come to help.
What's even more confusing is that, according to the surviving students, the captain at that time had been on the radio asking everyone to stay where they were and wait for rescue and not to panic. However, the rescue team waited for the students to get on deck on their own, and only the "disobedient" students survived, while the captain who told everyone to "don't move" was successfully rescued and watched leisurely.
If it was only during the rescue process, the public might question the efficiency of the coast guard or question the equipment on board, but why would anyone suspect that it was a conspiracy?
This needs to be understood from the birth of the "Sewol".
The Sewol did not originate from South Korea, but was a "refurbished car" that was acquired and renovated by South Korea after a 20-year voyage to Japan, and was renamed the Sewol in just half a year.
However, it was only after the accident that it became realized that the modification of the passenger liner was in fact illegal. In order to increase the capacity of passengers, they converted part of the deck into guest rooms and increased the cargo hold, which shifted the ship's center of gravity upwards and made it very prone to accidents.
On the day of the accident, although there were only more than 400 passengers and crew on the passenger ship, the cargo was more than 2,000 tons, resulting in a large amount of cargo floating around when the hull sank, and the rescue boat could not get close.
In addition, in the early morning of April 16, when a thick fog filled the sea, all other ships canceled their sailings, and only the "Sewol" resolutely chose to sail as if it were going to an appointment.
The captain who made this decision also behaved strangely at the time of the accident, and after ordering the students to stay in the cabin, he was alone and happily playing cards and chatting with the rest of the crew.
When the ATC asked if the passengers should be allowed to leave in lifeboats, he said that there were not enough lifeboats to evacuate. However, there were actually 44 lifeboats on board the "Sewol", how could he not know anything about it?
If the lifeboats could not escape, why were only two opened, wasn't this a retreat that he reserved for himself?
In the face of public anger and doubts, Captain Li explained that he was not the original captain of the Sewol, but a novice, so he did not know the details of the ship.
This kind of answer is so absurd that the captain of the ship could be changed temporarily? Therefore, the families of the victims are even more suspicious that this was a premeditated "sacrifice". After the accident, President Park Geun-hye did not immediately come out to preside over the rescue, but disappeared for seven hours, and was soon found to have met with her best friend, Choi Soon-sil.
This Choi Soon-sil is not simple, her father Choi Tae-min is the leader of the South Korean cult "Eternal Life Sect" and is also Park Geun-hye's spiritual mentor. Although Choi Tae-min has passed away, Choi Soon-sil has taken over his father's "mantle".
Choi Tae-min and Yu Bing-yan had co-planned the "emerging movement", and Yu Bingyan was the founder of the Ching Hai Town Shipping Company and the owner of the "Sewol". These suspicions are terrifying, but they are all speculation, and perhaps, as the South Korean side said, the "collusion between officials and businessmen" and the corruption and inaction of the coast guard due to the government's poor supervision of relevant institutions are the root cause of the tragedy...... So, what really happened that day?
Let's take a look. More than 300 high school graduates embarked on a sea trip for the first time under the guidance of their teachers, and they boarded the huge passenger ship "Sewol", but they did not expect that it would be a life-or-death trip.
After boarding the ship, everyone settled their luggage and greeted the upcoming island trip with great anticipation. The cabin was bustling with excitement and everyone was looking forward to the journey ahead.
However, some of them don't know that it will be a death trip that they will never forget. In addition to the students, there are more than 100 teachers on board.
They don't have the ease of the students, but they still have a smile on their faces when they look at the blue sky and the vast ocean. Suddenly, the hull of the ship tilted significantly, and the people on the deck and the people in the cabin couldn't help but be surprised, the wind and waves on this sea were too great.
Several teachers felt that something was wrong, but there was no announcement on the radio. They had to get out of the cabin and try to find out the situation from the sailors, but they could not find the person in charge.
The students excitedly boarded the passenger ship, but as they approached Jindo, the hull suddenly tilted, and not only did many students fall to the ground, but also the contents of the cabin were scattered to the ground.
Fear spread through the crowd, and everyone began to feel uneasy. Just as the students were about to go out to check on the situation, the announcement suddenly sounded: "Please stay where you are, don't move around, stay calm, and wait for the announcement."
The captain's calm voice came from the cabin, and it didn't sound like there was any emergency, which reassured the teachers and students a little. Fearing that going out would cause chaos, they chose to stay in the cabin.
Unbeknownst to them, however, the captains and sailors did not care about their well-being, and that this high quality of organization and discipline had become a nightmare for them.
The investigation showed that during the "Sewol" accident, the captain and sailors did not show any signs of panic or organizing the evacuation of personnel. On the contrary, at the beginning of the rescue, a rescue ship approached the control room and rescued the captain and others first, and sent them to a safe place.
Their behavior contrasted sharply with that of the captain and crew of the "Titanic", who chose to give up the chance to escape and go all out to rescue the passengers. In contrast, the actions of the captains and sailors were questioned by the population as selfish and dereliction of duty.
While they were safely evacuated, most of the students were still trapped in the cabin, relieved to see the arrival of the rescue team.
When the captain left the command to "stay where you are and put on your life jacket" before leaving, they followed the instructions and put on heavy life jackets in anticipation of being rescued. However, there was a lot of cargo around the passenger ship at that time, which the coast guard could not approach, and there seemed to be no other rescue plan.
Even when some fishing boats tried to get close to help, the coast guard chased them away so as not to "get in the way of rescue". Some of the students, realizing that something was wrong, began to try to escape from the cabin to the deck, and they became survivors.
And those teachers and students who believed in the country and the army sank to the bottom of the sea with the "Sewol". When the cabin was completely submerged, it seemed that the rescue team could finally start the rescue. Apparently, they only salvaged the remains of the students.
At the last moment of their lives, these dead students may still not understand why they have become dead souls in the sea even though the rescue team has arrived and they have not violated the instructions......
In the aftermath of the incident, the victims' families continued to speak out, eventually triggering nationwide unrest. Eventually, Park Geun-hye had to speak out and disband the South Korean Maritime Police and decide to thoroughly investigate the corruption that had been exposed.
In addition, the captain and crew of the "Sewol" were also tried, and in the end, the captain Li was found guilty of homicide and sentenced to life imprisonment, while the other crew members were sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison.
However, these treatments have not calmed the anger of the families, whose children are still sleeping on the icy seabed. At the moment, their priority is to recover the remains.
Because after the number of victims was confirmed, nine people were still missing, which was always a thorn in the coffin for the families.
In 2015, due to the continuous pressure of domestic public opinion, the South Korean government was forced to decide to invest a large amount of money in the salvage of the "Sewol" wreck. However, due to the lack of domestic salvage technology and experience, they decided to open a tender to the international community.
After a fierce competition, China's Shanghai Salvage Bureau managed to beat 18 other companies to win the project. For the China Salvage Bureau, this is not only an opportunity to make money, but also a good opportunity to improve its reputation and hone its skills.
In the face of the two difficult problems raised by the South Korean side, we did not retreat, but actively formulated a plan and decided to use steel beam support and hydraulic lifting for salvage. However, when the salvage officially began, we found that South Korea was withholding a lot of key information, such as the actual weight of the vessel did not match the data they gave.
This made it difficult for us during the lifting process, and the steel rope broke continuously. To overcome this problem, we had to change our strategy and add a spring design, which ultimately led to a successful solution to the weight problem.
In order to verify the location of the Sewol, we dispatched 100 divers to conduct an underwater survey and assisted by sonar technology, and finally confirmed the details of the Sewol.
And what they call seafloor "mud" is actually thick rock formations. Therefore, we had to adopt the new technology "trenching system" to successfully solve this problem.
The whole process turned out to be much more difficult than expected, for example, the installation of the steel beams at the stern of the ship took four months longer than planned, and it was not until the end of 2016 that the installation was successful.
In addition, the typhoon weather and changes in sea currents in South Korea made it more difficult, which made our final expenses far beyond our budget.
It took 590 days, we spent more than 5,000 tons of steel, a total of 1.6 billion, although South Korea paid 500 million yuan in salvage fees, but in the end we still lost 1.1 billion.
On March 25, 2017, the "Sewol" finally succeeded in coming out of the water, and we knew that they had finally waited for a result.
On May 10, 2017, we found the bones of the missing person in the hull of the ship for the first time.
As of 26 October 2017, five missing persons had not yet been found, and as time passed, the hope of finding them seemed increasingly dim.
In April 2020, South Korean President Moon Jae-in once again stressed the importance and necessity of the Sewol shipwreck, emphasizing that it is necessary not only to learn lessons but also to continue to pursue the truth.
He said that no matter what the truth is, those who were killed cannot be resurrected, and hoped that the South Korean government can truly remember those students and teachers who were killed and avoid similar tragedies from happening again.
He concluded by saying that although the mainland lost 1.1 billion yuan in this salvage operation, it was a worthwhile investment. We not only demonstrated the strength of China's salvage technology and increased its international reputation, but also created a legend of deep-sea operations in the world.
In carrying out this mission, we used a number of innovative techniques to enrich the experience of the divers. In addition, on a moral level, we have done a good deed to make up for some of the regrets of those who were killed, which is undoubtedly a precious treasure.