Korean ferry sinks, 304 Dead, mostly high school students

[jimmy olsen]

Man, I just had lunch and noticed a student saying grace silently to herself (this is pretty common). It lasted an incredibly long time and she seemed to be praying very hard. I realized she must have been praying for the victims.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/world/asia/south-korean-ferry-accident.html?_r=0&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Asia%20Pacific&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article

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.

"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."

...

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."

...

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.

"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."

...
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.

"All of a sudden, we were submerged," he said. "I tried to hold on to the tables, but they were moving around, too."

At some point, survivors said, the lights went out.

"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."

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.

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.

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."

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.

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."

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."

Her father texted back, "I know the rescuers are coming but why don't you try to come outside?"

"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.

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.

"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."

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."

"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."

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.

"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."

[Monoriu]

Seriously, don't trust the ferry crew in an emergency situation.

[Syt]

Also, don't pay the ferryman - don't even fix the price - until he gets you to the other side.

[jimmy olsen]

[grumbler]

Apparently the school administrator in charge of the trip (who escaped the ferry) has killed himself.

No further comment.

[Monoriu]

I struggle to think of something lower than ordering hundreds of school kids to stay put in a sinking ship.  That's beyond criminal.

[grumbler]

I struggle to think of something lower than ordering hundreds of school kids to stay put in a sinking ship.  That's beyond criminal.

There is nothing lower.  You are in loco parentis.  Abandoning them like this is morally and legally exactly the same as doing the same to your own children.

[CountDeMoney]

I struggle to think of something lower than ordering hundreds of school kids to stay put in a sinking ship.  That's beyond criminal.

How else are you going to get the lifeboat all to yourself?  Duh.

[DGuller]

It's easy to blame the captain, but how many of us would be more prepared for such a calamity?  Personally, if I were in his place, I wouldn't even know where the gas pedal was on that thing.

[alfred russel]

I'm definitely not excusing anyone, just trying to make sense of what happened. Perhaps the ferry was somewhat like the ferry I was on--many passengers were below deck and there weren't adequate exit routes for everyone. If the ship is quickly sinking, those on the bridge are probably going to get off, those below deck probably won't. There isn't much the crew can do for the passengers. You can't even join them below deck--that would mean going against the flow of everyone leaving and slow things down.

If that is what happened, I'd still hope the crew would hang around to help orient and direct those that did make it out.

[The Brain]

Lord Kim.

[jimmy olsen]

I'm sure the parents appreciate the sentiment.   

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/asia-pacific/surviving-alone-is-too-painful-i-will-be-teacher-in-afterlife-30199919.html

'Surviving alone is too painful – I will be teacher in afterlife'

Malcolm Moore Jindo, South Korea – Published 19 April 2014 02:30 AM
The police found his body in the early afternoon, hanging by his belt from a tree, with a note in his wallet expressing his grief at the deaths of his On Wednesday morning, 52-year-old Kang Min-gyu, the deputy headmaster of Danwon high school outside Seoul, had been having breakfast with his teenage charges in the cafeteria of the Sewol ferry as it made its way to the holiday island of Jeju.

His text messages back to his colleagues at the school suggest he did everything by the book. "Water is rushing in," he wrote at 8.55am, shortly after the distress call was first made. "The boat is leaning 15 degrees, the coastguard is here, all the students have their life jackets on," he wrote at 9.11am.

But while Mr Kang and 75 students were rescued, 14 died and another 236 remain in a watery grave, trapped inside the submerged hull.

"Surviving alone is too painful while 200 remain unaccounted for. I take full responsibility. I pushed ahead with the school trip," his note said.

"I will once again become a teacher in the afterlife for my students whose bodies have not been discovered."

After the police cut down his body, he was taken across the road to the Jindo funeral parlour and cremated. His ashes, according to his wishes, will be scattered on the ocean where the Sewol sank.

The news of his death caused barely a ripple inside the Jindo gymnasium, where Mr Kang had stayed with hundreds of parents, waiting for news from the rescue operation.

As hope has faded, the gymnasium has become a cauldron of anger and despair. Yesterday, medical staff darted around the hall, attending to parents convulsing and screaming in grief. At least 20 parents have had treatment for shock at the local hospital, a doctor said.

Relatives were quick to blame Mr Kang and other teachers for the fate of their children. "I saw him on Thursday afternoon around 4pm," said Kwon Hyeok-ryung (55), whose brother-in-law was also a teacher at the school, but is still missing.

"He felt a lot of responsibility, and he was under a lot of pressure. The parents blamed him for surviving. They screamed, 'How can you be a teacher and let your students die? How can you live with yourself?' They were grabbing him, trying to beat him."

About an hour after Mr Kwon saw Mr Kang, he walked out of the gym and disappeared. A police search began during the night.

Meanwhile, prosecutors were busy last night filing arrest warrants for Lee Jun-seok (69), the captain of the Sewol, the third mate who was steering the ship at the time of the disaster and another crew member. The three men are likely to face criminal charges of deserting their ship after being among the first to leave the boat.

Kang Hye-sung (31), the crew member who made the fatal announcements telling passengers to remain where they were, said he had been following orders from Capt Lee. "It was so hectic in the ship that I couldn't even think to make any judgment," he said.

At the wharf in Jindo, hundreds more parents and relatives continued to hurl abuse at South Korean officials as the hunt for survivors became an operation to retrieve corpses.

"You have stopped the rescue, now you just want to pull out dead bodies." (© Daily Telegraph, London)

Irish Independent

[Ed Anger]

What a loser.

[Capetan Mihali]

I'm not clear what it is he did wrong here, other than not drowning to death.  Did he mismanage the crisis (to the extent he could manage it in his role as principal)?  Or somehow prioritize himself over his students?

[grumbler]

I'm not clear what it is he did wrong here, other than not drowning to death.  Did he mismanage the crisis (to the extent he could manage it in his role as principal)?  Or somehow prioritize himself over his students?

He left before his charges were safe.  You don't leave children you are responsible for to die.  If he knew enough to leave, he knew enough to insist that all the students leave.  If not everyone could be saved, as many students as possible are saved, and no teachers survive.