Ferry Disaster: Sewol Captain Faces Arrest

[Jazzy]

Prosecutors have asked a court to issue an arrest warrant for the captain of the South Korean ferry which sank leaving 25 dead and hundreds missing.

Two other crew members are also being sought after the court appeal on Friday. No charges have been specified.

It comes as it emerged captain Lee Joon-Seok was not at the helm of the ship when it capsized, according to investigators.

The third officer was understood to be piloting the ship when the tragedy occurred, an investigating prosecutor told a news conference, and the captain may not have been on the bridge.

The investigator said: "He may have been off the bridge... and the person at the helm at the time was the third officer.

"The captain was not in command when the accident took place."

Investigators are also looking at whether the third officer ordered the vessel to make an abrupt turn, which caused it to tilt severely and take on water, according to prosecutor Park Jae-Eok.

It has also been revealed the 68-year-old delayed evacuation for half an hour after the distress signal was sent, suggesting more lives could have been saved had he acted sooner.

Full article with video

Horrible and no excuse as to why he left the helm and it took so long to announce the evacuation. This guy has a lot of explaining to do.

 

[DrLeftover]

25 April 2014

Divers searching a sunken passenger ferry off South Korea found 48 bodies in a single room on the vessel meant to accommodate 38 people, officials say.

The group was crammed into a dormitory and all were wearing lifejackets, a South Korean Navy officer said.

Some 183 bodies have been recovered from the Sewol, but scores of people are missing, presumed drowned.

The head of the operation to retrieve bodies said on Friday he had "no idea" how long the ship search would take.

There were 476 people on board, with many trapped inside as the ferry listed and sank within two hours of distress signals being sent. A total of 174 passengers were rescued.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27162157

 

[Jazzy]

A prosecutor investigating the South Korean ferry sinking says all 15 crew members involved in the ship's navigation are now in custody after four more were arrested.

Yang Jung-jin, of the joint investigation team, said two helmsmen and two members of the steering crew were detained this morning.

Eleven other crew members, including the captain, were previously arrested.

All the crew are accused of negligence and of failing to help passengers in need as the ferry sank on April 16.

The captain initially told passengers to stay in their rooms and took half an hour to issue an evacuation order, by which time the ship was tilting too severely for many people to get out.

Meanwhile, officials said divers searching the submerged hull of the ferry found 48 bodies in a room designed to take 38.

At least 35 rooms of the ferry's 111 rooms have been searched so far.

More than 80% of the 302 dead and missing are students from a single high school from the town of Ansan, south of Seoul.

The government has admitted some bodies had been misidentified and announced changes to prevent such mistakes from happening again.

There have been several reports in the South Korean media this week of bodies going to the wrong families, with the error sometimes being identified only after remains had been taken to a funeral home.

An "action plan" released by a government-wide emergency task force acknowledged that there had "been cases where the victims were wrongly transferred".

Divers have recovered 183 bodies so far, but 119 people remain missing feared dead in the dark rooms of the submerged vessel.

Source

 

[DrLeftover]

15 May 2014

The captain of the sunken South Korean ferry has been charged with manslaughter following the disaster that has left more than 300 people either missing or dead.

The Sewol’s chief engineer, first officer and second officer have also been indicted on the grounds of gross negligence, prosecutors said. If convicted the four men face life imprisonment.

Captain Lee Joon-seok was one of the first people to escape from the sinking ship when rescue boats arrived. He also took around half an hour to issue an evacuation order, and there is some doubt as to whether his message ever got through to passengers.

Of 476 passengers and crew on board the ship, just 172 were rescued – including 22 of the 29 crew members. Prosecutors have also indicted another 11 of them on less severe charges of negligence.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/south-korea-ferry-disaster-captain-and-crew-charged-with-manslaughter-over-disaster-that-killed-nearly-300-passengers-9373376.html