15/7 Tass 353
KAZAN, July 15 (Itar-Tass) — A plan of the operation for refloating the wrecked cruise motor ship Bulgaria is in the offing, Transport Minister Igor Levitin said Thursday night at a session of the governmental commission in charge of clearing the aftermath of last Sunday’s wreckage of The Bulgaria.
“The plan should be fully coordinated by the end of Thursday,” he said.
“We do hope the refloating of the ship will provide us with all the information necessary for investigation of the accident, and that’s very important for us,” Levitin indicated.
He told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who chaired the session in the city of Kazan, that of the 208 people staying aboard The Bulgaria at the time of wreckage, 79 have been saved.
The bodies of 113 have been recovered from the water and 105 of them have been identified by forensic experts.
Along with this, sixteen people are still listed as missing, and “divers continue working and the works will go on until the moment the whole ship is inspected,” Levitin said.
He also said that the operation to eliminate the aftermaths of the tragedy has engaged 1, 254 people, 188 units of technology, and fifteen aircraft.
“We brought 195 divers into the operation and established a 190-kilometers-long zone of to do patrolling from the air and right on the water,” Levitin said.