KOEN sends 2 more staff to site

Doosan airlifts thermal-imaging drone from Korea

An office building near the weir dam in the Rasuwa district of Nepal lies buried under mud and debris on Tuesday (local time), as members of a South Korean government joint rapid-response team attempt to reach the site to search for nine missing South Korean nationals following massive flooding. [Yonhap]
An office building near the weir dam in the Rasuwa district of Nepal lies buried under mud and debris on Tuesday (local time), as members of a South Korean government joint rapid-response team attempt to reach the site to search for nine missing South Korean nationals following massive flooding. [Yonhap]

Korea South-East Power and Doosan Enerbility are conducting an extensive search for nine missing South Korean workers at a Nepal disaster site, deploying helicopters, drones and search dogs following catastrophic flooding.

According to the companies' on-site response teams, Doosan Enerbility launched a chartered helicopter at around 12:50 p.m. Wednesday (4:05 p.m. Korean Standard Time) to conduct an intensive aerial search around the weir dam above the power plant, the workers' accommodation and the office building.

A Doosan Enerbility Korean employee and locally hired staff were on board.

Drone searches are also continuing. Doosan Enerbility plans to deploy an additional high-performance drone airlifted from South Korea to supplement the one already in use. The new drone is equipped with thermal-imaging capability.

Korea South-East Power is likewise pressing ahead with searches around the accident site using drones and search dogs. The company deployed four locally secured search dogs on Tuesday and sent them out again Wednesday for another sweep of the site.

KOEN also dispatched two additional deputy-director-level employees to Nepal on Wednesday, bringing total on-site response personnel to 22, including four local office staff and 16 members from the first and second dispatch teams.

Both companies are using every available means — helicopters, drones and ground searches — to avoid missing even the faintest sign of life near the accident site.

KOEN has also deployed thermal-imaging and infrared drones to detect signs of human presence and survey areas difficult to identify visually, conducting simultaneous searches and video documentation.

At Doosan Enerbility, Doosan Group Chairman Park Jung-won and Vice Chairman Park Ji-won returned to South Korea on Wednesday, with Vice Chairman and CEO Jeong Yeon-in now leading the company's on-site response.

Chairman Park had been in Nepal since Aug. 29, receiving situation briefings on the ground and supporting search and rescue operations.

The nine South Korean workers went missing Aug. 26, when massive flooding struck the Rasuwa district of Bagmati Province, where they were working on construction of the Upper Trishuli (UT)-1 hydropower plant. Six are employees of Doosan Enerbility and three work for Korea South-East Power.

No signs of life from any of the missing workers have been detected so far.


mokiya@heraldcorp.com