South Korea ferry captain 'not at helm' when ship capsized

A doomed ferry’s captain delayed evacuation for half an hour after a South Korean transportation official ordered preparations to abandon ship, according to a transcript of the ship-to-shore exchange and interviews with a crew member.

South Korea ferry captain 'not at helm' when ship capsized

A doomed ferry’s captain delayed evacuation for half an hour after a South Korean transportation official ordered preparations to abandon ship, according to a transcript of the ship-to-shore exchange and interviews with a crew member.

It has also emerged the captain was not at the helm when it went down off the coast of South Korea.

Investigators say one of his juniors - a third lieutenant - was in charge when the ship capsized fater taking a sharp turn which may have caused cargo to suddenly shift inside the vessel.

The development raises more questions about whether quick action could have saved scores of passengers still missing and feared dead,

The order by an unidentified official at the Jeju Vessel Traffic Services Centre to put on lifejackets and prepare for evacuation came five minutes after a Wednesday morning distress call by the Sewol ferry as it tilted severely to the side.

The ferry, which was bound for Jeju island, replied that “it’s hard for people to move”.

Officials also offered a rare look at their investigations, saying they were looking into whether a crewman’s order to abruptly turn the ship contributed to the 6,852-ton Sewol ferry tilting severely to the side and filling with water.

The confirmed death toll from the sinking off southern South Korea is 28, most of whom have been found floating in the ocean, the coastguard said, but 48 hours after the sinking the number of deaths is expected to rise sharply with about 270 people missing, many of them high school students on a class trip. Officials said there were 179 survivors.

The captain has not spoken publicly about his decision-making, and officials are not talking about their investigation, which includes continued talks with the captain and crew, but the new details about communication between the bridge and transportation officials follow a revelation by a crew member that the captain’s eventual evacuation order came at least half an hour after the distress signal.

Meanwhile, strong currents and rain made rescue attempts difficult again as they entered a third day. Divers worked in shifts to try to get into the sunken vessel, where most of the missing passengers are thought to be, said a coastguard spokesman.

Coastguard officials said divers have started pumping air into the ship, but it is not yet clear if the air is for survivors or for a salvage operation. Officials said in a statement that divers are still trying to enter the ship.

South Korean officials also offered a glimpse into their investigation of what may have led to the sinking. They said the accident happened at a point where the ferry from Incheon to Jeju had to make a turn. Prosecutor Park Jae-oek said in a briefing that investigators were looking at whether the third mate ordered a turn so sharp that it caused the ship to list. He said officials were looking at other possible causes.

Mr Park said crews’ testimonies differed about where the captain was when the ship started listing.

The captain was “near” the bridge as the ship continued listing, although Mr Park could not say whether the captain was inside or right outside the bridge.

Angry and bewildered relatives gathered on a nearby island watched the rescue attempts. Some held a Buddhist prayer ritual, crying and praying for their relatives’ safe return.

“It’s heartbreaking if I think about how cold she must be inside the water,” said Lee Yong-soon, 62, the aunt of a missing student, Jeong Da-hye.

“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.”

The water temperature in the area was about 12C, cold enough to cause signs of hypothermia after about 90 minutes of exposure.

The coastguard spokesman said two vessels with cranes had arrived and would help with the rescue and to salvage the ferry, which sank not far from the southern city of Mokpo and now sits with just part of its keel visible. But salvage operations had not started yet because of the rescue attempts. Salvaging the capsized ship could be risky because the vessel could get wedged deeper in the ocean’s floor, he said.

Out of 29 crew members, 20, including the captain, Lee Joon-seok, 68, survived, the coastguard said.

The captain made a brief, videotaped appearance, saying: “I am really sorry and deeply ashamed. I don’t know what to say.”

Kim Soo-hyun, a senior coastguard official, said officials were investigating whether the captain got on one of the first rescue boats.

The 480ft Sewol had left Incheon on the north-western coast of South Korea on Tuesday for the overnight journey to the southern resort island of Jeju. There were 475 people aboard, including 325 students from Danwon High School in Ansan, near Seoul,

It was three hours from its destination on Wednesday morning when it began to list for an unknown reason.

Oh Yong-seok, a helmsman on the ferry with 10 years of shipping experience, said that when the crew gathered on the bridge and sent a distress call, the ship was already listing more than 5 degrees, the critical angle at which a vessel can be brought back to even keel.

The first instructions from the captain were for passengers to put on life jackets and stay where they were, Mr Oh said.

A third mate reported that the ship could not be righted, and the captain ordered another attempt, which also failed, Mr Oh said. A crew member then tried to reach a lifeboat but fell because the vessel was tilting, prompting the first mate to suggest to the captain that he order an evacuation, he added.

About 30 minutes after passengers were told to stay in place, the captain finally gave the order to evacuate, Mr Oh said, adding that he was not sure in the confusion and chaos on the bridge if the order was relayed to the passengers. Several survivors said they never heard any evacuation order.

By then, it was impossible for crew members to move to passengers’ rooms to help them because the ship was tilted at an impossibly acute angle, he said. The delay in evacuation also probably prevented lifeboats from being deployed.

“We couldn’t even move one step. The slope was too big,” said Mr Oh, who escaped with about a dozen others, including the captain.

Passenger Koo Bon-hee said many people were trapped inside by windows that were too hard to break. He wanted to escape earlier but did not because of the announcement to stay put.

The last major ferry disaster in South Korea was in 1993, when 292 people were killed.

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