Rookie steered ferry on its perilous course

A relative of a missing ferry passenger is overcome as she waits with others for news of rescue efforts Saturday at the port in Jindo, South Korea.
A relative of a missing ferry passenger is overcome as she waits with others for news of rescue efforts Saturday at the port in Jindo, South Korea.

JINDO, South Korea - A 26-year-old third mate was steering a South Korean ferry through a notoriously treacherous waterway for the first time when it tilted and sank, prosecutors said Saturday, as rescuers raced against time to find any survivors among the 252 missing passengers, many believed to be trapped inside the capsized vessel.

photo

AP

Lee Joon-seok (center), the South Korean captain of the sunken ferry Sewol, leaves court with two crew members after their arrests Saturday in Mokpo, south of Seoul.

Divers recovered 16 bodies from inside and around the ferry that sank off South Korea, pushing the confirmed death toll to 49, officials said early today. The discovery came after rescuers finally gained access to the inside of the ship after three days of failure and frustration caused by strong currents and bad visibility in inclement weather.

More than 300 people are missing or dead, and the captain of the ferry has been arrested on accusations of negligence and abandoning people in need. Two crew members also were taken into custody, including the rookie third mate.

Questions about the qualifications of the third mate, Park Han-gyeol, mounted Saturday after investigators revealed that the ship’s captain, Lee Joon-seok, was in his quarters, leaving Park in charge of the bridge when the ferry was passing through the waterway 11 miles from Jindo Island.

For ages, the 3.7-mile-long, 2.8-mile-wide Maenggol Waterway has provided a shortcut for ships that try to save fuel or time navigating waters dotted with islets off the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula. But the channel also has a reputation for having one of the most rapid and unpredictable currents around the peninsula.

“It was her first time steering the ship through the Maenggol Waterway,” said Yang Joong-jin, a senior prosecutor who is part of the government’s investigation. “There is nothing legally wrong with that. But it does give us important data on how well-qualified she was.”

Park ended up in command of the ship by chance.

The three regular mates on the 6,825-ton car ferry, the Sewol, worked on a fixed rotation of four-hour shifts, with Park on duty at the bridge from 8 a.m. to noon. The ship had been scheduled to leave Incheon, a port west of Seoul, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday with 476 people on board, including 325 second-year high school students headed for a field trip on the southern island of Jeju. Park had been working aboard the ferry on the Incheon-Jeju route for six months.

But the ship’s departure was delayed 2½ hours because of heavy fog. Had it left on time, the ship would have passed the spot where it foundered and sank half an hour before Park’s shift was to have started.

Park was unavailable for comment. She was arrested Saturday, along with the captain and a helmsman who was also on duty with Park. They face criminal charges of abandoning their ship and passengers during a crisis, accidental homicide, or both.

The factors that led to Park’s being in charge while the ferry plied the Maenggol Waterway may provide another piece of the puzzle investigators are putting together.

Ever since the ship capsized Wednesday morning, investigators have worked to unravel the mysteries surrounding one of South Korea’s worst peacetime disasters, especially the question of why the ship suddenly tilted as it passed a curve in the shipping lane.

Navy divers have struggled to enter the ship. Many of the survivors have said many passengers were probably trapped inside the overturned and sunken ship, partly because they had been advised by the crew to stay put even while the ship was tilting dangerously.

“The chances of anyone surviving in there depend on many factors, such as the water temperature and individual conditions,” said Ko Myong-seok, a senior coast guard officer involved in rescue operations.

Hopes have dwindled since the capsizing Wednesday. All of the 174 survivors were found in the immediate hours after the sinking. Officials said Saturday that the recovery operation could take weeks.

Even when divers were able to enter the ship, they soon had to retreat, because debris blocked the way Through a window, divers saw three bodies in life jackets floating inside Saturday and broke through a window to recover them, coast guard officials said at a briefing.Then today, government officials announced that 13 more bodies had been found inside and near the ferry, pushing the confirmed toll to 49.

On Saturday night, flares illuminated the murky blue waters as divers plunged into the night sea to try again to get inside the ship. To help, officials provided nine squid-fishing boats, which have powerful lights that lure the fish at night. They also hired four trawlers to catch any bodies drifting away in the strong current.

Relatives of missing passengers, shown a murky video clip of the underwater rescue effort, responded with fury about the pace of the operation. During the briefing, one man jumped onto a stage in the gymnasium where the relatives have gathered and accosted a coast guard official. Another screamed that the ferry’s captain, who fled well before most passengers, should be taken back to the scene and killed.

The video footage was difficult to make out, and showed images of dark-greenish water and the hull of the boat. No bodies were visible.

“What’s the use of showing us this?” one relative asked.

Adding to the grim spectacle, relatives were asked Saturday to give DNA samples, a preparation for identifying bodies on board.

In the days since the ferry went down, hundreds of divers have worked in shifts trying to gain access to the chambers of the vessel. But they’ve encountered a string of problems - from strong currents to poor visibility - and water pressure has made it difficult to break the ferry’s windows.

The divers have used ropes to guide them as they descend, but those ropes have torn on occasion.

Complicating matters, search officials said Saturday that oil had begun to spill from the vessel, making it all the harder to see. Other ships were racing to clean the oil up, but additional oil remains in the ferry and poses a further risk.

“We’ll do our best in the search-and-rescue operation and won’t spare even a second to save precious lives,” said Goh Myeong-seok, a coast guard official.

As the likelihood of survivors has diminished, South Korea has fallen into national mourning.

Some networks have canceled reality shows and dramas, and almost all film premieres, concerts and galas have been delayed. At least one professional baseball team said there would be no cheerleading at its games.

The ferry’s captain, Lee, told reporters Saturday after his arraignment that he didn’t immediately order an evacuation when the vessel ran into trouble because the currents were fast around the area of the accident, and the water was cold.

“I am sorry to the people of South Korea for causing a disturbance and I bow my head in apology to the families of the victims,” Lee said as he left the Mokpo Branch of Gwangju District Court tobe jailed. But he defended his much-criticized decision to wait about 30 minutes before ordering an evacuation.

“At the time, the current was very strong, the temperature of the ocean water was cold, and I thought that if people left the ferry without [proper] judgment, if they were not wearing a life jacket, and even if they were, they would drift away and face many other difficulties,” Lee said.

“The rescue boats had not arrived yet, nor were there any civilian fishing ships or other boats nearby at that time.”

The South Korean government said Saturday that both Ansan and Jindo, an area that has become a staging ground, could be declared special disaster zones, meaning they would receive special financial help from Seoul in dealing with the disaster.

Danwon High School, in Ansan, hasn’t held classes since the disaster, but students, parents and others in the community gathered on the grounds Friday night. They held candles in paper cups and wrote messages on pieces of paper, which were then posted on pillars in the high school.

“Come home safely,” one message read.

“It must be very cold down there, but don’t lose hope,” read another.

Information for this article was contributed by Choe Sang-Hun, Su-Hyun Lee and Jiha Ham of The New York Times; by Chico Harlan and Yoonjung Seo of The Washington Post; and by Foster Klug and Hyung-Jin Kim of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/20/2014

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