Ferry carrying 470 passengers sinking off South Korea

[webfact]

Death toll reaches 159 in South Korean ferry disaster

Seoul - The death toll in the South Korean ferry sinking reached 159 early Thursday, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

Full story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/720992-thailand-live-thursday-24-apr-2014/page-2#entry7729506

[Lite Beer]

Body recovery from sunken S. Korean ferry suspended

JINDO, South Korea - Concerns are growing among anguished families that the bodies of those who died in the sinking of a South Korean ferry may never be found, as search teams suspended work Saturday because of bad weather.

A looming storm and high tides put a temporary halt to operations to recover the remains of more than 100 people still missing over a week after the huge ferry capsized.

"Over the weekend, strong wind and rain is expected in the Jindo area", a coastguard spokesman told journalists.

"As efforts to find the missing people are becoming protracted, there are growing concerns among their families that bodies might be lost for good", he said.

The confirmed death toll stood Saturday at 187, with 115 unaccounted for - many bodies are believed trapped in the ferry that capsized on April 16 with 476 people on board.

Making up the bulk of the passengers on the 6,825 tonne Sewol when it sank were 325 high school students -- around 250 of whom are either confirmed or presumed dead.

Although all hope of finding survivors has been extinguished, there is still anger and deep frustration among relatives of the missing over the pace of the recovery operation.

-- The Nation 2014-04-26

[Basil B]

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no mention of lifeboats, that I've seen, thus far in official news.

Captain could have announced something like: All those who are good swimmers, with life jackets, you can jump overboard.

And looked around for anything boyant (sp) to toss over alongside the ship: styrofoam, lifesavers, large wooden furniture, whatever.

To make everyone stay on board for 40 minutes after the ship was badly damaged and listing - is indeed criminal.

There were many lifeboats, only 2 were launched, as for jumping in to the water, what was the water temperature, my guess people would not survive to long in the water there.

My thoughts as a former ship captain...

1. Who ever made the announcement for the passengers to stay in their rooms

while the ship was sinking should be charged with murder

2. The captain bailing out first is a bit amazing. I thought that type of action was confined

solely to Greek and Italian captains.

3. Saying the ship was in fog is completely irrelevant. The ship has navigation systems

that accurately place it within a few meters, and navigation charts that show every feature

underwater. If they ran the ship onto a reef given modern navigation equipment, the

third mate was either asleep, drunk/stoned, or retarded.

As soon as it was clear the ship was listing there should have been an order for for passengers to report to the musters stations, I would go as far as saying hopefully when lessons are learned from this tragedy that there will be fitted tilt alarms that detect listing (much like a smoke alarm) in all areas below decks which work automatically to advise passengers to go to the upper decks.

[Basil B]

You have to wonder what evacuation training the crew received.

Probably the same as the Costa Concordia's captain.

I have just seen this: Footage shows South Korea ferry captain rescue http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-27196310

Clearly before the ship had pitched 45 degrees there were rescue boats and and helicopters on seen, yet while the captain abandoned ship ship (Italian style), there were over two thirds of the passengers still waiting below decks as they had been told to.

Clearly I can see 14 inflatable life boats on the deck, un-launched, at an angle of 45 degrees I can see also it is impossible for the passengers and crew to move about the ship unaided, but not impossible if there are many rope ladders strategically placed all over the ship and the crews trained to evacuate passengers from below decks until the boat is completely upside down.