|
Search Turns from Missing Sailors to Ship Salvage
The military has given up the search for missing sailors and started efforts to salvage the Navy corvette Cheonan, which sank due to an unexplained explosion on March 26.The decision follows a request from the families of missing sailors after several people died or were injured in search operations in treacherous waters. Navy Warrant Officer Han Joo-ho died on March 30 and the Kumyang 98, a dragnet trawler, sank during search operations in waters off Baeknyeong Island last Friday evening and crew died or went missing. Experts speculate that the salvage operations will take at least 10 days even if the weather and other conditions are good. Navy Commodore Lee Ki-sik, the director of intelligence operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said as of midnight Sunday "we switched the focus to salvaging the sunken ship first." The Navy sent two more minesweepers equipped with sonar to the scene of incident. On Saturday evening, Navy Ship Salvage Unit members recovered the body of Senior Chief Petty Officer Nam Ki-hoon (36) from the ceiling of the senior chief petty officers' mess hall in the stern. But 45 sailors remain unaccounted for. Meanwhile, the exact time of the incident is becoming clearer. The Navy said there was an exchange of communication between the Cheonan and the Second Navy Fleet Command around 9:19 p.m. on March 26. The time of the explosion has been given as 9:22 p.m. Army Lt. Gen. Park Jung-yi, the chief of a joint civilian-military investigation team, said "routine" communications were exchanged around 9:19 p.m. Posted by: Steve White 2010-04-05 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=293972 |