Divers have battled currents and murky waters to finally enter a South Korean ferry two days after it sank.
Cellphone video emerged from the South Korean ferry disaster on Thursday, as the president of the company that runs the ferry appeared for an emotional public apology. Via The Foreign Bureau, WSJ's global news update.
Grief-stricken ... South Korean relatives of passengers on board a capsized ferry cry as they wait for news about their loved ones. Source: AFP
A SCHOOL vice-principal who was rescued from the sunken South Korea ferry has been found dead as an arrest warrant is issued for the boat's captain.
Kang Min-Kyu, 52, had escaped the 6825-tonne Sewol ferry as it sank on Wednesday with hundreds of his students still on board and was taken with other survivors to nearby Jindo island.
Jindo police said the cause of death was under investigation and Yonhap news agency reported that Kang had felt guilty for being alive while many of those under his care were missing.
PASSENGER FILM: The moments before the South Korean ferry sank
The new tragedy came as prosecutors sought arrest warrants.
"The joint investigation team of police and prosecutors asked for warrants to arrest three crew, including the captain," the official in the southern coastguard headquarters in Mokpo told AFP.
The request was submitted to the local court, he said, while adding that he was unaware of the precise charges.
CAPTAIN ABANDONED SHIP: "I'm sorry, I'm deeply ashamed"
Arrest warrant ... Lee Joon-Seok, captain of the South Korean ferry that capsized at sea off the coast of Jindo, is interviewed at Mokpo police station in Mokpo. Source: AFP
The captain Lee Joon-Seok and most of his 28 crew managed to escape the ferry, and have been criticised for abandoning the ship when so many were still trapped on board.
Tracking data from the Maritime Ministry showed the ferry made a sharp turn just before sending its first distress signal on Wednesday morning.
Some experts believe such a tight turn could have dislodged the heavy cargo manifest — including more than 150 vehicles — and destabilised the vessel, causing it to list heavily and then capsize.
But others suggested the turn might have been caused by a collision with a rock or other submerged object.
Prosecutors said earlier today that preliminary investigations showed that the captain had handed the helm to his third officer before the ferry capsized.
Lee apologised yesterday to the victims and their relatives, but offered no clear explanation for what caused the ship to go down.
"I feel really sorry for the passengers, victims and families," Lee said.
"I feel ashamed."
The lucky ones ... South Korea Coast Guard members in helicopters try to rescue some of the 477 passengers and crew aboard. Source: AFP
The confirmed death toll stands at 28, with the focus of concern remaining on the 268 still unaccounted for, many of them students from Ansan Danwon High School.
Of the 475 people on board when the Sewol capsized, only 179 were rescued and no new survivors have been found.
With the chances of their survival becoming slimmer with each passing hour, the sinking is shaping to be one of South Korea's worst disasters, made all the more heartbreaking by the likely loss of so many young people, aged 16 or 17.
The ship had left the north-western port of Incheon on Tuesday on an overnight journey to the holiday island of Jeju in the south with 475 people, including 325 students. It capsized within hours of the crew making a distress call to the shore at 9am, with only the dark blue keel jutting out over the surface.
Even that had disappeared by late today and rescuers floated two giant beige coloured buoys to mark the area. Navy divers attached underwater lifting bags to the ferry to prevent it from sinking further, the Defence Ministry said.
Coast guard officials said divers began pumping air into the ship in an attempt to sustain any survivors.
On the shore of a nearby island, angry and bewildered relatives watched the rescue attempts. Some held a Buddhist prayer ritual, crying and praying for their relatives' safe return.
"I want to jump into the water with them," said Park Geum-san, 59, the great-aunt of another missing student, Park Ye-ji. "My loved one is under the water and it's raining. Anger is not enough."
A six-year-old girl is rescued from the sunken ferry in South Korea, but her parents and brother are still missing. Sarah Toms reports.
South Korean officials offered some information about what may have led to the sinking. They said the accident happened at a point where the ferry had to make a turn. Prosecutor Park Jae-eok said in a briefing that investigators were looking at whether the third mate ordered a turn whose angle was so sharp that it caused the ship to list.
Yonhap news agency reported that the third mate was a 26-year-old with a year of experience steering ships and five months on the Sewol.
The ship made a sharp turn between 8:48am and 8:49am local time, but it's not known whether the turn was made voluntarily or because of some external factor, Nam Jae-heon, a director for public relations at the Maritime Ministry, said today.
Another angle being probed was the captain's role in the disaster.
A transcript of a ship-to-shore exchange and interviews by The Associated Press showed the captain delayed the evacuation for half an hour after a South Korean transportation official told the ship it might have to evacuate.
The recommendation by an unidentified official at the Jeju Vessel Traffic Services Centre came at 9am, just five minutes after a distress call by the Sewol.
No survivors likely now ... The South Korean ferry sinking on its way to Jeju island from Incheon, some 20 kilometres off the island of Byungpoong in Jindo. Source: AFP
In the recording of the conversation, the Sewol crew member says: "Currently the body of the ship has listed to the left. The containers have listed as well."
The Jeju VTS officer responds: "OK. Any loss of human life or injuries?"
The ship's answer is: "It's impossible to check right now. The body of the ship has tilted, and it's impossible to move."
The VTS officer then says "Yes, OK. Please wear life jackets and prepare as the people might have to abandon ship."
"It's hard for people to move," replies the crew member on the radio.
Oh Yong-seok, a helmsman on the ferry, told the AP that the first instructions from the captain were for passengers to put on life jackets and stay where they were, Oh said.
About 30 minutes later, the captain finally gave the order to evacuate, Oh said, adding that he wasn't sure in the confusion and chaos on the bridge if the order was relayed to the passengers. Several survivors told the AP that they never heard any evacuation order.
Grief-stricken ... A woman weeps at a gymnasium used as a gathering point for relatives of missing passengers. Source: AFP
Of the 29 crew members, 20, including the captain, survived, the coast guard said. Officials were investigating whether Lee got on one of the first rescue boats.
Lee has made a brief, videotaped appearance, although his face was hidden by a grey hoodie. "I am really sorry and deeply ashamed," Lee said. "I don't know what to say."
Park, the prosecutor, also said crews' testimonies differed about where the captain was when the ship started listing. As that listing continued, the captain was "near" the bridge, Park said, but he couldn't say exactly where.
Today, strong currents and rain made rescue attempts difficult. Divers worked in shifts to try to get into the sunken vessel, where most of the missing passengers are thought to be trapped, said coast guard spokesman Kim Jae-in.
Three vessels with cranes arrived at the site to possibly begin salvaging the ferry. But they will not hoist the ship before getting approval from family members of those believed trapped inside because the lifting could endanger any survivors, said a coast guard officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing department rules.
The school vice principal found hanging Friday was identified as Kang Min-kyu, the lead guide for the school trip. No suicide note was found near the site, but Yonhap news agency reported that Kang had felt guilty for being alive while many of those under his care were missing.
Also today, prosecutors raided the offices of the ship's owner, Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd, in Incheon.
The operator of the ferry added more cabin rooms to three floors after its 2012 purchase the ship, which was built in Japan in 1994, an official at the private Korean Register of Shipping told the AP today.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not allowed to discuss matters under investigation, said the extension work between October 2012 and February 2013 increased the Sewol's weight by 187 tons and added enough room for 117 more people. The Sewol had a capacity of 921 when it sank.
Hopeless task ... South Korean Navy personnel try to search for missing passengers aboard the sunken ferry Sewol in the water off the southern coast near Jindo, South Korea. Source: AP
As is common in South Korea, the ship's owner, Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd, paid for a safety check by the Korean Register of Shipping, the official said, which found that the Sewol passed all safety tests, including whether the ship could stabilise in the event of tilting to the right or to the left after adding more weight.
Ian Winkle, a British naval architect and ferry expert, said many ships have such modifications, to increase capacity, for instance.
The last major ferry disaster in South Korea was in 1993, when 292 people were killed.
