The Sewol ferry, loaded on a transport vessel, arrived at Mokpo Port on Friday afternoon, ending its final voyage 1,081 days after it sank in South Korea’s worst maritime disaster.

The semisubmersible transport vessel carrying the retrieved passenger ferry departed the wreck site off Jindo, South Jeolla Province, at around 7 a.m. and arrived at Mokpo at 1:15 p.m., the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said.

Engineers have begun work to move the 6,800-ton, 145-meter-long Sewol to the port’s dry quay area for a search of its interior. It is expected to take up to five days.  

Sewol had departed from Incheon en route to the southern resort island of Jeju on April 15, 2014, carrying 476 passengers, mostly high school students on a field trip. Midway through the voyage on the next day, the ship ran aground and sank, leaving more than 300 dead or missing. Only 172 passengers were rescued.

The ill-fated vessel had been lying on the seabed for nearly three years before it was lifted out of the water on March 22.

Starting next week, an operation team will search for nine missing passengers in the hope that their bodies are still inside the ferry. The search is expected to commence on April 10 after sterilization and other safety procedures. 

In case the nine missing bodies are not found there, the team plans to search the seabed with sonar radar.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)