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Survivors of Korean Ferry Recall a Sharp Turn, Then Chaos Human Error Suspected as Hope Fades in Korean Ferry Sinking
(about 3 hours later)
JINDO, South Korea — It was a trip that the second-year students at Danwon High School had been eagerly awaiting, a last chance for fun before a grueling year of studying for the national university entrance exam. Soon after their ship left the port of Incheon on Tuesday night, the students celebrated by launching fireworks from the deck. JINDO, South Korea — The captain was among the first to flee. Only a couple of the 44 life rafts aboard were deployed. The hundreds of passengers were instructed over the intercom to “stay inside and wait” as the ship leaned to one side and began to sink, dragging scores of students down with it.
About 12 hours later, everything went terribly wrong. Their ferry, the 6,825-ton Sewol, bound for the resort island of Jeju, tilted to the left for as-yet-unexplained reasons shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday and began sinking in the blue-gray waters off southwest South Korea. “I repeatedly told people to calm themselves and stay where they were for an hour,” Kang Hae-seong, the communications officer on the South Korean ferry that sank on Wednesday, said from his hospital bed. He added that he could not recall taking part in any evacuation drills for the ship, and that when a real emergency came, “I didn’t have time to look at the manual for evacuation.”
There were 325 students among the 475 people believed aboard the ship, and more than 24 hours later, with bad weather having largely stymied a second day of search operations, 285 passengers were still missing and feared dead. It took two and a half hours for the ferry, the Sewol, to capsize and become submerged in the blue-gray waters off the southwestern tip of South Korea. Yet in that time, only 179 of the 475 people believed to have been on board were rescued. By Thursday evening, the confirmed death toll was 25.
As of Thursday evening, the confirmed death toll was at 25, and just 179 passengers had been rescued. Rain, strong currents and poor visibility underwater hampered the efforts of divers from South Korea’s Navy and Coast Guard to search the sunken ship. As rescuers battle bad weather and dwindling hopes to search for the 271 people still missing, most of them students, evidence is growing that human error contributed to one of South Korea’s worst disasters in recent decades.
It is unclear why the Sewol leaned so far to port before sinking, and why so many aboard the ship were unable to escape, even though it took nearly two and a half hours for the vessel to capsize and all but disappear underwater. Interviews on Thursday with survivors, relatives, crew members and investigators offered a vivid picture of how the trip turned into a catastrophe, and possibly into South Korea’s worst disaster in decades. Kim Su-hyun, a provincial coast guard chief, told reporters on Thursday that the ship’s captain, Lee Jun-seok, stood accused of violating his responsibilities by abandoning the ferry ahead of most of his passengers. Coast guard officials who questioned Mr. Lee on Thursday said they were reviewing possible criminal charges, while the police said they were investigating whether he had escaped aboard one of the few life rafts used.
“The government floundered, unable even to count the number of those missing correctly,” the country’s leading conservative daily, Chosun Ilbo, which has been mostly supportive of the government of President Park Geun-hye, said in an editorial on Thursday. “Above all, the people must have felt deeply that South Korea is a country that doesn’t value human lives.” “I can’t lift my face before the passengers and family members of those missing,” Mr. Lee said during a brief appearance before reporters on Thursday.
It cited “unspeakable mistakes and errors” in the ferry’s operation and in the rescue efforts. But he provided little clarity on what led the 6,825-ton Sewol to lean so far to its side before sinking, and why so many aboard had been unable to escape.
“Bring my child back alive!” some parents yelled on Thursday, when Ms. Park visited an indoor gymnasium on Jindo Island, 11 miles from the site of the sinking, that local officials had turned into a shelter for grieving families. Ms. Park promised “all available resources” for the rescue, and a “thorough investigation and stern punishment for those responsible.” For some maritime experts, the captain’s decision to abandon the ship and the crew’s emergency performance seemed to echo problems in the wreck of the Costa Concordia, an Italian cruise ship that ran aground in 2012, killing 32 people.
According to survivors, the students were having a morning break after breakfast, roaming through the floors in small groups and taking pictures on the deck, when the ship began tipping over. James T. Shirley Jr., an accident investigator in Newtown, Pa., said that in the two and a half hours it took the ship to sink, the crew “certainly had enough time to get most of the people off.”
“I don’t understand why the crew would be instructing passengers to stay inside the ship,” Mr. Shirley said. “I would think that if nothing else, they would be getting them outside with life jackets on so if it sank, they could at least get into the cold water with their jackets.”
Capt. William H. Doherty, a maritime safety expert at Nexus Consulting Group who commanded Navy and merchant ships, said there was “clearly a breakdown in safety training” on the South Korean ferry, a failure he said could be attributed to its officers and to Korean regulators.
“When they issued a safety certification for the ship, they had to certify that the crew was trained,” Captain Doherty said, noting the communications officer’s admission that he had not taken part in an evacuation drill. “You have to satisfy yourself that this crew is trained in all emergency situations.”
For the 325 students from Danwon High School who made up the bulk of the passengers, it was a trip they had been eagerly awaiting, a last chance for fun before a grueling year of studying for South Korea’s university entrance exam. Soon after the ferry left the port of Incheon on Tuesday night bound for the resort island of Jeju, they celebrated by launching fireworks from the deck.
According to survivors, the students were having a morning break after breakfast on Wednesday, roaming through the floors and snapping pictures on the deck, when the ship began tilting.
When the situation became critical, survivors said, many students were still on the third floor, where the cafeteria and game rooms were.When the situation became critical, survivors said, many students were still on the third floor, where the cafeteria and game rooms were.
“I don’t remember that there was any safety instruction before we boarded the ship,” said Kim Su-bin, 16, a Danwon student who climbed out of the sinking ship and jumped into the water. “Life jackets were on the fourth floor where the sleeping cabins were, but those who were on the third floor at the time had no life jackets.” “I don’t remember that there was any safety instruction before we boarded the ship,” said Kim Su-bin, 16, a Danwon student who survived by climbing out of the sinking ship and jumping into the water. “Life jackets were on the fourth floor where the sleeping cabins were, but those who were on the third floor at the time had no life jackets.”
Han Hee-min, another 16-year-old student, said all had gone smoothly until he felt the ship “turning too sharply” around 9 a.m. Wednesday. Investigators said the Sewol appeared to have made a sharp turn to the left around the time it began to tilt. It had been sailing slightly off its usual course, they said, and Mr. Lee, the captain, had apparently tried to steer it back. It was unclear why he had tried such a turn in waters known for their strong currents, or why the turn had caused the ship to lean.
Investigators who questioned the ferry’s captain, Lee Jun-seok, 69, on Thursday said the vessel had made a sharp turn to the left around the time it began to tilt. The Sewol had been sailing slightly off its usual course, they said, and Mr. Lee had apparently tried to steer it back. But it was unclear why he had tried such a turn in waters known for their strong currents, or why the turn had caused the ship to lean to one side. Inside the ferry, chaos unfolded, survivors said, as the walls and floor seemed to exchange positions. Bottles and dishes fell. The ship’s twisting stairways became almost impossible to negotiate. Passengers were tossed to one side. Trays and soup bowls overturned, said Song Ji-cheol, a college student who worked part-time in the cafeteria.
The captain, in a brief appearance before reporters Thursday, provided little clarity. “I can’t raise my face before the passengers and family members of the missing,” he said. Officials have said Mr. Lee, who has been criticized for being among the first to leave the ship, could face criminal charges. “All of a sudden, we were submerged,” he said. “I tried to hold on to the tables, but they were moving around, too.”
An investigator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the government had not yet reached its final conclusions, said it was possible that the ferry’s cargo — which included 180 trucks and cars and more than 1,100 tons of cargo in shipping containers — had not been tied down properly. At some point, survivors said, the lights went out.
“That might have loosened them and caused them to slide to one side when the ship made its turn, and helped cause the ship to tilt out of control,” the investigator said. “When the ship began tilting, there was a thudding noise, and I thought it was the noise made by students bumping into the walls,” Han Hee-min said on Thursday in a hospital in Ansan, the city south of Seoul where Danwon High School is. “I had a life jacket, so I floated. Some friends grabbed my leg, and I don’t know what happened to them.”
Inside the ship, chaos unfolded, survivors said, as a wall and the floor seemed to exchange positions. Bottles and dishes overturned. The ship’s twisting stairways suddenly became almost impossible to negotiate. Passengers were tossed to one side as if they were riding a slide. Trays and soup bowls overturned, said Song Ji-cheol, a college student who worked part time at the cafeteria. Grainy video footage taken with a smartphone and sent to a relative showed frightened passengers huddled in the corner of a room as a voice on the ship’s intercom urged people to “stay inside and wait because the cabins are safer.” Gwon Ji-hyuck, 16, said he had heard that broadcast as well.
“The gas burst and all of a sudden, we were submerged,” he said. “I tried to hold on to the tables but they were moving around, too.” Han Sang-hyuk, 16, blamed the crew’s instructions for the high number of missing people, saying that those who stayed in their rooms or were caught in small alleyways between corridors would not have been able to escape.
At some point, some survivors said, the lights went out. Alan Loynd, a sea disaster investigator and the chairman of the International Tugmasters Association, would not comment directly on the crew’s decisions. But “as a general rule,” he said, “if a ferry started listing, I wouldn’t be staying below decks.”
“When the ship began tilting, there was a thudding noise and I thought it was the noise made by students bumping into the walls,” one passenger, Han Hee-min, said Thursday in a hospital in Ansan, the city south of Seoul where Danwon High School is situated. “I had a life jacket so I floated. Some friends grabbed my leg and I don’t know what happened to them.” The communications officer, Mr. Kang, 32, said that he and another crew member had been forced to make a quick decision. They thought that if passengers fled in a panicked rush, it could make matters worse, he said.
Grainy video footage made with a smartphone, and sent to a relative while the ship was sinking, showed frightened passengers huddled in the corner of a room as a voice on the ship’s intercom urged people to “stay inside and wait because the cabins are safer.” Another student, Gwon Ji-hyuck, 16, said he heard that broadcast. Sixty to 70 students clogged a narrow corridor while their teacher shouted at them to remain calm, he said. Shin Seong-hee, a Danwon student, was among those who heeded the advice. In a text message she sent to her father, she said the crew had told her that “it was more dangerous to move.”
“My teacher distributed life jackets to the last minute and led us calmly,” said Han Sang-hyuk, 16, in tears, referring to Nam Yun-cheol, one of the two teachers found dead. Her father texted back, “I know the rescuers are coming but why don’t you try to come outside?”
Han Sang-hyuk, a student, blamed the ship crew’s instruction for the high number of missing people, saying that those who stayed in their rooms or were caught in small alleyways between corridors would not have been able to escape. But Kim Su-bin, the Danwon student who survived by climbing out of the ship, thanked Park Ji-young, a member of the crew who was found dead on Wednesday, for calming the students and staying behind without a life jacket after helping students get out. “I can’t because the ship is tilting too much,” she said, in a text displayed by her sister. Ms. Shin has not been heard from since.
The ship’s communications officer, Kang Hae-seong, 32, said he and Ms. Park had to make a quick decision. They thought that if passengers fled in a panicked rush, it could make matters worse, he said. Mr. Kang said the ship’s crew had studied the manual on fire drills but never had an evacuation simulation. Few of the ship’s 60 life rafts were used. Some survivors gave accounts of professionalism and self-sacrifice by crew members. Kim Su-bin, the Danwon student who climbed out and jumped into the water, thanked Park Ji-young, a crew member who was found dead on Wednesday, for calming students and staying behind without a life jacket after helping students escape.
“I repeatedly told people to calm themselves and stay where they were for an hour,” he said from his hospital bed on Jindo. “I didn’t have time to look at the manual for evacuation.” “Bring my child back alive!” some parents yelled on Thursday when President Park Geun-hye visited a gymnasium that local officials had turned into a shelter for grieving families. Ms. Park promised “all available resources” for the rescue efforts, and “a thorough investigation and stern punishment for those responsible.”
Shin Seong-hee, a Danwon student, was among those who heeded the advice. In a text message she sent to her father, she said she had been told by the ship’s crew that “it was more dangerous to move.” Her father texted back: “I know the rescuers are coming but why don’t you try to come outside?” An editorial in the country’s leading conservative daily newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, which has been mostly supportive of Ms. Park’s government, denounced it for “floundering.”
“I can’t because the ship is tilting too much,” she replied in a text that was shown to a reporter by her sister, Shin Seong-ah, on Thursday. Shin Seong-hee has not been heard from since. “Above all, the people must have felt deeply that South Korea is a country that doesn’t value human lives,” it said. “Hundreds of passengers sank with the ship, but its captain and most of its crew came out alive.”
Another student, Shin Yong-jin, texted to his mother: “Mom, I say this now because I may never be able to say it: I love you.” Mr. Shin made it out of the ship. Jeon Young-jun, 61, a crew member, said the chief engineer had told his team to desert the ship immediately, contrary to the intercom instructions for passengers.
The indoor gymnasium on Jindo Island was a caldron of emotion on Thursday as desperate parents waited to hear news of their children. “My colleagues and I were sure we would die if we didn’t get out immediately, because we knew that the ship tilting about 48 degrees means big danger,” he said. “There was nothing else to think about.”
Hundreds of mothers, fathers and relatives sat dejectedly on the floor, some wrapped in blankets. Some shrieked and collapsed, and were tended to by medical workers. The police were investigating fabricated lists of survivors circulating online that gave parents false hopes.
At one point, a police officer came to apologize for delays in a plan to pump oxygen into the sunken ship, in case some passengers were still alive. “You liar!” a father shouted at the police officer, before jumping onto the podium and punching and kicking him.
“My child is alive in there!” the man shouted repeatedly until he was hauled away by other parents.