No signs of life: 103 bodies, hundreds missing
An
elaborate operation involving thousands was carried out to right the
capsized cruise ship on the Yangtze River, as hopes fade of finding
survivors among the hundreds trapped inside.
Horrors emerge
Cruise ship righted with hundreds feared inside
Chinese
salvage crews successfully right the capsized Eastern Star, meaning
families waiting for news of loved ones may soon get closure -- but
questions remain over the disaster.
Relatives' nighttime march to shipwreck
Story highlights
- State media: 103 bodies have been recovered, but hundreds remain missing
- The Eastern Star turns upright after divers tied slings around it and a crane lifted it
- Some oil leaked from the ship into the Yangtze River, a government official says
Jianli, China (CNN)The
Eastern Star is upright once again, looking almost normal with its
bottom resting on the water and its deck and cabins clear above it.
The
ship's positioning Friday was a step forward in the days-long nightmare
playing out on a section of the Yangtze River that flows through Hubei
province. It means answers should be easier to come by as to why the
Eastern Star capsized Monday night and what can be done to prevent
similar tragedies in the future.
It also means closure could be coming soon to hundreds of families.
By
6:20 p.m. (6:20 a.m. ET) Friday, the body count stood at 103, according
to Chinese state media. That's a tick up from previous days, but still a
fraction of the 456 passengers who were on board, many of them in their
60s and 70s.
Fourteen of them
survived. But rescuers have had no luck since Tuesday, when a
21-year-old sailor and 65-year-old woman were plucked from the water.
The chances of more miracles have dwindled with each passing day. And the salvage process has begun.
Scores of ships, thousands of soldiers involved
That
process involved huge floating cranes that set up alongside the
overturned river cruise ship, dropped cables and hooks into the water,
rolled the ship upright and raised it to the surface. About 50 divers
took part overnight Thursday by tying slings around the 2,200-ton
vessel, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
State-run
CCTV News tweeted pictures of the Eastern Star after this happened
Friday. Parts of its top level looked smashed, but the other levels
appeared largely intact. By draining the ship, the idea is that it could
again float on its own.
Meanwhile, rescuers continue
their work. After going through the submerged, capsized ship for three
days, they'll now theoretically be able to walk its decks and open
spaces.
The idea is to go cabin by
cabin, looking for people who may have, by chance, survived in a cranny
inside -- and for the many who most certainly did not. It's all part of a
huge operation involving nearly 150 other ships, 59 machines, over
3,400 Chinese troops and 1,700 paramilitary personnel, Xinhua said.
In
addition to the human toll, there's an environmental toll from oil
leaked into the Yangtze River, Transport Ministry spokesman Xu
Chengguang said.
One man's heavy grief
Jian
was desperate to know what happened to his mother, father, aunt and
uncle, who were sailing on the 11-day cruise from Nanjing to Chongqing.
So
the man, who asked that his last name not be published, joined dozens
of others missing their loved ones in Jianli County to wait for answers.
The nation is sharing their grief; for China, the accident is a
national tragedy.
But Jian has not been
willing to just sit and wait. He found the ship on a map and hired a
motorcycle driver to take him to the riverside to get as close to the
vessel as possible.
He arrived at a muddy path along the Yangtze.
"When
I was slogging through the ankle-high muddy path along the Yangtze
River, all of a sudden I remembered a similar path where my dad took me
to fish when I was a kid," he said. "I immediately took my cell phone
out, dialed my dad's number again and again, but there was no answer."
"I couldn't see the ship. But I was so close to him. I just wanted to be closer."
Jian says he accepts the fact that his loved ones have died.
"It was almost a sure thing that nobody was alive," he said after seeing the waters.
Anger at government
Some family members have been angry with the government for not doing enough to save their loved ones from the river.
Families' despair turns to anger in China 02:47
And Jian is among those who haven't been satisfied with the response, but he remains calm.
On
Thursday, he joined other family members and locals who gathered in
Jianli's town square for a somber candlelight vigil in honor of the
hundreds of people presumed dead.
Family
members say they have been giving blood samples to provide the DNA
necessary for identifying the bodies pulled from the wreckage.
Support
In
the town of Jianli, not far from the stretch of river where the Eastern
Star capsized, crowds of children chattered with excitement Friday
morning as they tied hundreds of fluttering yellow ribbons to a fence
outside their school.
The ribbons are part of a campaign of support for victims of the cruise ship accident.
Nine-year-old Yi Duo Duo wrote on his ribbon, "I wish you come back safe," before tying it to the fence.
Other residents have put up signs of sympathy outside their homes and businesses.
Questions about cause of disaster
Questions remain about what happened to the Eastern Star.
Authorities
have taken the captain and the chief engineer into custody but have
revealed little about what they have said, other than that a tornado hit
the ship.
We know nothing!: Anger builds over Chinese shipwreck 02:52
It's unclear why the Eastern Star was the only ship on the busy waterway so badly affected by the storm.
Satellite
information from a website run by the Transport Ministry shows the
cruise ship suddenly changing direction a matter of minutes before
authorities say it sank.
But
what caused the ship to start moving downstream rather than upstream
isn't clear. One possibility is that the change in direction came after
the ship was left disabled and drifting by the storm.
Top government officials have demanded an investigation into the cause of the disaster.
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