Oh my goodness. That sucks.
Oh my goodness. That sucks.
Exactly. Makes me think maybe this is why only one or two lifeboats even made it out on the water. Once he was gone, the passengers didn't know how to take the lifeboats off the ferry themselves, so they were basically stuck there.
If he wasn't willing to risk his life and save other passengers before himself, he never should've been a captain in the first place.
The captain of a South Korean ferry that capsized three days ago was reportedly arrested early Saturday, as divers overcame strong currents and near zero visibility to enter the submerged vessel for the first time.
A team of police and prosecutors had sought on Friday arrest warrants for Lee Joon-Seok, 52, and two of his crew without specifying charges, the coastguard had said, after the incident that left 28 people confirmed dead and another 268 still missing.
On Saturday the Yonhap news agency reported that Lee was in custody and faced five charges, including negligence of duty and violation of maritime law.
Yonhap said a local court in Mokpo had issued arrest warrants for him and two other crew members, citing the possibility that they may flee or destroy evidence.
Earlier, prosecutors said Lee had handed the helm to his third officer before the ferry capsized.
Three days after the sinking, relatives were clinging to increasingly slim hopes that some may have survived in air pockets.
The unfolding tragedy was compounded by the apparent suicide of a high school vice principal who had been rescued from the 6,825-tonne Sewol that sank Wednesday morning with hundreds of his students trapped inside.
The breakthrough by dive teams in finally accessing the ship came more than 48 hours after the 6,825-tonne Sewol went down -- a delay that has incensed the relatives of those still unaccounted for.
After several attempts, two divers managed to pry open a door and enter the cargo section on Friday afternoon, a senior coastguard official said.
Hours later another two-man team accessed one of the cabins, but found nothing.
-- Search through the night --
"The search operation will continue through the night," the official said.
"Visibility is almost non-existent. You can hardly see your hand in front of your face," said one diver when he returned to the harbour at nearby Jindo island.
Of the 475 people on board the Sewol, only 179 were rescued and no new survivors have been found since Wednesday.
Three giant, floating cranes reached the rescue site, but regional coastguard commander Kim Soo-Hyun stressed they would not begin lifting the multi-deck ferry until they were sure there were no survivors inside.
"I want to be clear: There won't be any salvage work done against the will of the families," Kim aid.
More than 350 of the passengers were students from Danwon High School in Ansan city just south of Seoul.
Among those parents whose children were still missing there was bitter resentment at what they saw as the inadequacy of the official response.
"It's been two days but no one has been brought out alive," complained Lee Yong-Gi, whose son was unaccounted for.
"I firmly believe that the kids are alive. We need to rescue them as soon as possible. But officials are dragging their feet," Lee told AFP.
-- Guilt-wracked suicide note --
Local police said they found the body Friday of Danwon High School vice-principal, Kang Min-Kyu, who had managed to escape the Sewol as it sank.
Multiple local media reports said he had been found hanging by his belt from a tree, and Yonhap news agency cited a suicide note police found in his wallet.
"Surviving alone is too painful... I take full responsibility," the note said.
Captain Lee and his 28 crew, most of whom survived the disaster, have been heavily criticised after reports that they were among the first to abandon ship.
"The captain was not in command when the accident took place," prosecutor Park Jae-Eok told a press briefing.
"It was the third officer who was steering the ship," he said.
The captain had apologised Thursday to the victims and their relatives, but offered no clear explanation for what caused the Sewol to capsize.
Tracking data from the Maritime Ministry showed that the ferry made a sharp turn just before sending its first distress signal.
Some experts believe 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.
Chief prosecutor Lee Seong-Yoon stressed there was "no limit" to the range of the investigation.
"We will make sure... those responsible are sternly held accountable," Lee said.
As well as the cause of the disaster, investigators will be looking at why passengers were ordered to stay in their cabins and seats for up to 40 minutes after the ferry ran into trouble.
Furious relatives believe many more people would have escaped if they had reached evacuation points before the ship listed sharply and water started flooding in.
Newspaper editorials were scathing with the Dong-A Ilbo daily calling the rescue response "ludicrous".
"We have the world's finest shipbuilding industry in the 21st century, but our mindset is in the 19th century," the newspaper said.
http://news.msn.com/world/south-kore...ocid=fbmsnnews
I wonder if the VP hanged himself, or if he was murdered by people who hold him accountable for their children's deaths.
This is horrible.So sad. what a douche that captain is.
I remember that shit on 9/11. They were telling people in the buildings to stay put. FUCK. OUTTA. HERE.
I'm not staying on a literal sinking ship. You might want to avoid some dangerous exodus where people risk getting trampled, but you still need people to head for the exits. Oh, and the fucking lifeboats!
oh. well, i would expect him to stay on board as well, if possible because as a school official, the safety of the kids is your charge. but i don't know the whole story on this one. it's possible that he was just in the way and rescue officers forced him to disembark.
No Animosity. At least not on my end. Tupelo does seem to be passionate about my opinions though. I'll just make sure I'm not on a sinking ship with her
I just think that if my kid were on the ship and died, I'd side eye the VP surviving while hundreds of kids didn't.
Just my opinion. Nothing to have a conniption fit over.
Assholes!
Disgust, anger and shock greeted official statements from South Korean authorities that texts and social media posts from survivors trapped inside the stricken ferry had been faked.
Messages such as "I am still alive... in the cafeteria please help me my battery is running out please believe me," and "My phone is not working I am inside the boat I can't see anything" were spreading on social media on Thursday -- as late as over 24 hours after the incident.
The messages gave extra substance to hope at least some of the hundreds of missing passengers were alive and awaiting rescue.
Ferry tragedy: Mother haunted by decision
Photos: South Korean ship sinks Photos: South Korean ship sinks
South Korean ferry rescue operationSouth Korean ferry rescue operation
News and rumors of the texts circulated around families of the missing. The purported texts contained so much detail, they made relatives "surprised and excited," one mother said earlier this week.
The texts also fueled a tense atmosphere at Jindo -- where distraught families viewed them as proof several passengers were alive. This led to remonstrations and the hurling of objects at authorities, who relatives accused of not doing enough to save their children.
"An investigation from the Police Cyber Terror Response Center verified that all texts in question [from passengers still within the ship] are fake," South Korea police posted on its official Twitter account.
"Please stop such actions that are causing pain to the families of missing passengers. The malicious distributors of these texts will be strictly dealt with."
South Korea has been gripped by this tragedy and the pronouncement of these fake social posts added to the collective anguish -- especially as social media has been playing a crucial role in relaying information from the site.
Police successfully put out a call on social media to find any relatives of a rescued six-year-old girl who had been on board with her parents and older brother.
The revelations of fake posts have added to a growing sense of public confusion, mistrust and escalating frustration -- particularly among the passengers' relatives -- over the handling of the search and rescue operations, media coverage and official releases of information.
Scenario shows what sinking feels like
Outrage grows after ferry sinks
Nationwide grief
Across the country, scheduled festivals, concerts and school field trips are among the events that have been canceled.
TV networks have been carrying the search virtually non-stop since the incident.
All news and top searched keywords on the main Internet portals remain linked to the ship, while wishes for good news are flooding social media.
"Hoping everyone will be returned to the arms of their families ... Please be strong. Remembering the SEWOL disaster ..." tweeted Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu.
"All I can hope for is that our friends will return alive ..." tweeted Kim Min Hyuk, a senior at the high school that sent 325 students and 15 teachers on a field trip aboard the ill-fated ferry.
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