Sunken Bulgaria being straightened before lift.

17/7 Tass 159

MOSCOW, July 17 (Itar-Tass) —— The sunken MS Bulgaria is being straightened before lifting. The operation may be complete within an hour, Deputy Transport Minister, lift supervisor Viktor Olersky said.

“The straightening of the ship began at 5:30 p.m. Moscow time. The list has been reduced from 90 degrees to 10-15 degrees,” he told the TVC channel.

“The operation proceeds normally. When the Bulgaria is straightened, divers will go underwater to clog the holes in the hull and to close right-side portholes,” he said.

After that the ship will be lifted and water will be pumped out, he said.

The lift will start on Monday morning, Olersky said.

Seventy-seven specialists, among them 49 divers, are preparing to lift the wrecked Bulgaria. In all, the works involve 834 people.

The search for 15 people missing in the shipwreck continues along the 118-kilometer coastline and on 19 river islands. A total of 420 people on 93 boats and 13 aircraft are searching for the missing.

The MS Bulgaria sank in a storm in the Kuibyshevskoye dam lake, three kilometers away from the shore, on July 10. The ship built in Czechoslovakia in 1955 titled to the right and sank within minutes. The death toll has reached 114. In all, there were 208 people aboard, some of them unregistered. Seventy-nine were rescued. Fifteen are still missing.

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