Ferry Disaster

In Jindo, South Korea a ferry called Sewol that carried many passengers sank last week. Since then, divers have been frantically searching for survivors all day and night. Recently, the divers concluded that most of the passengers would be in the cafeteria since the ferry capsized in the morning, and they were hoping that many of the passengers found an air pocket somewhere on the ship.

Earlier today after divers made it to the ship’s cafeteria, they concluded that there is not an air pocket anywhere on the ship. This confirmed many’s fears of this rescue mission turning into a recovery mission. Since then the Korean Coast Guard said 121 people have been confirmed dead and 181 still remain missing. Most of these missing persons are students of a Korean high school that were on the ferry for a class trip.

Now the big confusion in the disaster is how the Sewol actually reached the point of sinking. A fisherman on a boat nearby as the boat was capsizing stated to authorities that he took his boat up to the capsized ferry soon after the incident to try and save some of the passengers, but the captain told him everyone had already been saved. The captain also told all the passengers to stay put, yet he was the first one off of the sinking ship.

Crew members said they tried to get to the life rafts to save passengers, but the boat rolled over and sank too quickly for anyone to get to them. The failure to deploy the lifeboats was only one of a series of problems that kept those on board the sinking vessel last Wednesday.

The captain, two first helmsmen, one second helmsman, a third mate, the chief engineer, a technician, and two crew members were arrested on Tuesday and face charges for their actions during the sinking of the Sewol ferry.

No more survivors have been found since the 174 people were rescued soon after the ferry went down on Wednesday.