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| Lifted to safety: Lee Joon-seok, top right, is shown being lowered from the cockpit as he escapes the sinking ship. More than 475 people were on board |
Pictured: The moment captain abandoned South Korean ferry - leaving behind hundreds to drown. Arrest warrant issued
- Lee Joon-seok, 68, dangled from a rope as rescuers helped him leave ferry
- He escaped the vessel, which was carrying 475 passengers when it capsized
- Lee was carried to safety on Wednesday - but 270 are still missing
The Daily Mail (UK) |
Prosecutors
have demanded the arrest of the man captaining a South Korean ferry
which capsized on Wednesday with hundreds of passengers on board - hours
after a photograph emerged of him abandoning ship.
Lee
Joon-seok, 68, was in charge of the ferry, which was carrying 475
passengers when it turned sharply and later sank. There have been 28
confirmed deaths in the wake of the disaster, while some 270 remain
missing.
However,
as a damning new photograph shows, Lee was among the first to leave the
ship. He can be seen dangling from a rope as he is helped onto a rescue
boat while the ferry is still above water.
Scroll down for video
Search: Rescuers, pictured today, were still
searching for victims in the sea, where an inflatable buoy marks the
position of the wreckage
It has since been claimed that Lee was
not actually steering the ship during the disaster, having left the job
to his third-in-command.
According to Korean prosecutor Park
Jae-Eok, there is a chance that Lee wasn't in control of the vessel at
that point, and had left it to his third-in-command.
He told Sky News:
'He may have been off the bridge... and the person at the helm at the
time was the third officer... The captain was not in command when the
accident took place.'
The
new claims came as the vice principal who had responsibility for
hundreds of school children who died or went missing in a tragic South
Korean ferry accident was found hanged in front of victims' families.
Kang
Min-gyu, 52, was found hanging from a tree outside of a gym in Jindo,
South Korea, near to where relatives of the victims are staying in the
wake of the passenger ship sinking on Wednesday.
The ferry was carrying 475 passengers
when it capsized on a short journey between Icheon and Jeju on
Wednesday. Around 28 people have been confirmed dead, while some 270 are
yet to be accounted for.
Kang
taught at the Danwon High School in Ansan, near Seoul. Around 340 of
the ferry passengers were students or teachers from his school, and make
up the vast majority of those still missing.
Police said he went missing yesterday before being found.
His
death came amid new claims by investigators that the ship's captain,
68-year-old Lee Joon-seok, was not at the helm when it capsized.
Desperation: A relative cries while waiting for news of her loved ones. 270 victims are still unaccounted for
The
new claims come the day after the human scale of the tragedy was made
clear by the story of a six-year-old girl who was rescued - but is still
waiting for news of her parents and brother, who are among the missing.
After being rescued, the distraught girl was taken to hospital in Mokpo, near the coastal city of Jindo, where she was treated.
Despite
ongoing rescue efforts, on Thursday the South Korean coast guard did
not confirm if the young girl's parents and brother were dead or alive.
The young girl and her family were travelling to the Island to look for a new home, Korea Joongang Daily reported.
Survivor
Yu Ho-sil helped rescue Kwon and said: 'Somebody shouted at me from the
back to take the baby and other students passed the baby outside.'
Once rescued, Kwon was able to tell authorities the names of her family members, but was unable to recall her address.
Lucky to be alive: Kwon Ji-yeon, 6, was pulled from the ferry on Wednesday
In shock: The young girl, highlighted, became separated from her parents and brother, when she was passed on to rescuers
After being rescued, the distraught girl was taken to hospital in Mokpo, near the coastal city of Jindo, where she was treated.
Despite ongoing rescue efforts, on Thursday the South Korean coast guard did not confirm if the young girl's parents and brother were dead or alive.
The young girl and her family were travelling to the Island to look for a new home, Korea Joongang Daily reported.
Survivor Yu Ho-sil helped rescue Kwon and said: 'Somebody shouted at me from the back to take the baby and other students passed the baby outside.'
Once rescued, Kwon was able to tell authorities the names of her family members, but was unable to recall her address.
A medical assessment determined Kwon, pictured
in hospital, was in shock but had not ad not suffered any severe
external injuries
It has been reported that Kwon told medical staff her mother and brother gave her a life jacket before passing her up to the rescue boats.
The hospital worked with authorities and rescue teams to find Kwon's other relatives by using her photo online.
After a web post of her image went viral, the young girl's aunt and grandmother identified her and made their way to the hospital.
After a medical assessed, it was determined that Kwon was in shock as a result of the accident and the unfamiliar environment.
Despite being treated in a separate room to help calm her, hospital director Ryu Jae-kwang said Kwon had not suffered any severe external injuries.
With 271 people still missing, it is feared the death toll of 28 will rise in coming days
'To help stabilise her condition, we are limiting her contact with other people,' he said.
Jo Yo-sep, an eight-year-old boy from a different family, was also pulled from the boat and separated from his family.
The young boy was trying to find his family as the ship was sinking but was picked up by 55-year-old passenger Kim Byung-kyu, who found the child after he fell on the floor when the boat fell on its side.
Meanwhile, the vice-principal of the high school whose pupils died has committed suicide by hanging himself outside a large gym where families of the victims were staying.
Police said that Kang Min-gyu, 52, had been missing since Thursday and appeared to have hung himself with his belt from a tree outside the gym.
Out of 475 passengers and crew on the ship, about 340 were students and teachers from the Danwon High School in Ansan, an industrial town near Seoul, who were on an outing to the resort island of Jeju.
They account for about 250 of those missing.
On Thursday, rescue teams made up of navy divers and the coast guard were diving into the waters where the ferry sunk, searching for those still missing.
The incident happened about 12 miles off the country's south western coast and also on Thursday, a man reported to be the ferry's captain, declared on Korean TV that he was 'sorry and deeply ashamed.'
A web post of Kwon's photo was used to identify her in the wake of the tragedy
Yonhap news agency and Broadcaster YTN identified the man, who appeared with his face covered with a grey hooded top, as the captain.
'I am really sorry and deeply ashamed,' he said after being questioned at the Mokpo Coast Guard Office.
In the brief videotaped appearance, he added: 'I don't know what to say.'
Captain Lee Joon-seok, 69, now faces a criminal investigation for his part in the tragedy.
Most the people on board were made up of students and teachers from a South Korean school.
The young girl's aunt and grandmother saw Kwon's
image online and made their way to the hospital she had been taken to
for treatment
Fresh questions have been asked about whether quicker action by the captain of the doomed ferry could have saved lives.
On Friday, rescuers continued the search to find the hundreds of passengers still missing and feared dead.
Officials also offered a rare look at their investigations, saying they were looking into whether a crewman's order to abruptly turn the ship contributed to the 6,852-ton Sewol ferry tilting severely to the side and filling with water Wednesday.
The confirmed death toll from Wednesday's sinking off southern South Korea was 28, the coast guard said.
It has been reported that Kwon told medical
staff her mother and brother gave her a life jacket before passing her
up to the rescue boats
Most of bodies have been found floating in the ocean because divers have been continually prevented from getting inside the ship by strong currents and bad weather.
But 48 hours after the sinking the number of deaths was expected to rise sharply with about 270 people missing, many of them high school students on a class trip.
Officials said there were 179 survivors.
New questions were raised by a transcript of a ship-to-shore exchange and interviews by The Associated Press that showed the captain delayed evacuation for half an hour after a South Korean transportation official ordered preparations to abandon ship.
South Korean rescue team members prepare to
search for passengers of a ferry sinking off South Korea's southern
coast, in the water off the southern coast near Jindo, south of Seoul,
South Korea, Thursday, April 17, 2014. Fears rose Thursday for the fate
of more than 280 passengers still missing more than 24 hours after their
ferry flipped onto its side and filled with water off the southern
coast of South Korea. (AP Photo/Yonhap) KOREA OUT
A crewmember on the ferry, which was bound for Jeju island, replied that 'it's hard for people to move.'
The ship made a sharp turn between 8.48am and 8.49am Korea time, but it's not known whether the turn was made voluntarily or because of some external factor, Nam Jae-heon, a director for public relations at the Maritime Ministry, said on Friday.
The captain has not spoken publicly about his decision making, and officials are not talking much about their investigation, which includes continued talks with the captain and crew.
Lee Joon-seok, the captain of a sunken ferry in
the water off the southern coast arrives to be investigated at Mokpo
Police Station in Mokpo, South Korea, Thursday, April 17, 2014. An
immediate evacuation order was not issued for the ferry that sank
Wednsday, likely with scores of people trapped inside, because officers
on the bridge were trying to stabilize the vessel after it started to
list amid confusion and chaos, a crew member said Thursday. (AP
Photo/Yonhap) KOREA OUT
But the
new details about communication between the bridge and transportation
officials follow a revelation by a crewmember in an interview with The
Associated Press that the captain's eventual evacuation order came at
least half an hour after the 9am distress signal.Meanwhile, strong currents and rain made rescue attempts difficult again as they entered a third day.
Divers worked in shifts to try to get into the sunken vessel, where most of the missing passengers are thought to be, said coast guard spokesman Kim Jae-in.
Coast guard officials said divers began pumping air into the ship Friday, but it wasn't immediately clear if the air was for survivors or for a salvage operation.
South Korean rescue team members search for
passengers aboard a ferry sinking off South Korea's southern coast, in
the water off the southern coast near Jindo, south of Seoul, South
Korea, Thursday, April 17, 2014. Fears rose Thursday for the fate of
more than 280 passengers still missing more than 24 hours after their
ferry flipped onto its side and filled with water off the southern coast
of South Korea. (AP Photo/Yonhap) KOREA OUT
Officials said in a statement that divers were still trying to enter the ship.South Korean officials also offered a glimpse into their investigation of what may have led to the sinking.
They said the accident happened at a point where the ferry from Incheon to Jeju had to make a turn.
Prosecutor Park Jae-eok said in a briefing that investigators were looking at whether the third mate ordered a turn whose degree was so sharp that it caused the ship to list.
The captain was not on the bridge at the time, Park said, adding that officials were looking at other possible causes, too.
A woman offers prayers during a candlelight
vigil for the missing passengers of a sunken ferry at Danwon High School
in Ansan, South Korea, Thursday, April 17, 2014. An immediate
evacuation order was not issued for the ferry that sank off South
Korea's southern coast, likely with scores of people trapped inside,
because officers on the bridge were trying to stabilize the vessel after
it started to list amid confusion and chaos, a crew member said
Thursday. (AP Photo/Wonghae Cho)
Park also said crews' testimonies differed about where the captain was when the ship started listing.As that listing continued, the captain was 'near' the bridge, Park said, but he couldn't say whether the captain was inside or right outside the bridge.
The operator of the ferry added more cabin rooms to three floors after its purchase the ship, which was built in Japan in 1994, an official at the private Korean Register of Shipping told the AP on Friday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not allowed to discuss matters under investigation, said the extension work between October 2012 and February 2013 increased the Sewol's weight by 187 tons and added enough room for 117 more people.
People gather to pray with candlelights for the
missing passengers of a sunken ferry at Danwon High School in Ansan,
South Korea, Thursday, April 17, 2014. An immediate evacuation order was
not issued for the ferry that sank off South Korea's southern coast,
likely with scores of people trapped inside, because officers on the
bridge were trying to stabilize the vessel after it started to list amid
confusion and chaos, a crew member said Thursday. (AP Photo/Woohae Cho)
The Sewol had a capacity of 921 when it sank.As is common in South Korea, the ship's owner, Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd, paid for a safety check by the Korean Register of Shipping, the official said, which found that the Sewol passed all safety tests, including whether the ship could stabilize in the event of tilting to the right or to the left after adding more weight.
Ian Winkle, a British naval architect and ferry expert said many ships have such modifications, to increase capacity, for instance.
'In this particular case, it would have affected the stability by a small amount, but as it seems from the structure of the vessel, generally, it looks as if it was adequate to meet statutory regulations,' Winkle said.
Danwon High School students hold papers with
messages such as "come back," "miss you," "love you" and "don't loose
your hope" for their friends who are missing after Wednesday's ferry
disaster at the school yard in Ansan, South Korea, Thursday, April 17,
2014. Strong currents, rain and bad visibility hampered an increasingly
anxious search Thursday for 287 passengers, many thought to be high
school students, still missing more than a day after their ferry flipped
onto its side and sank in cold waters off the southern coast of South
Korea. (AP Photo/Woohae Cho)
Near
the site of the ferry, angry and bewildered relatives gathered on a
nearby island watched the rescue attempts. Some held a Buddhist prayer
ritual, crying and praying for their relatives' safe return.'I want to jump into the water with them,' said Park Geum-san, 59, the great-aunt of another missing student, Park Ye-ji. 'My loved one is under the water and it's raining. Anger is not enough.'
Kim, the coast guard spokesman, said two vessels with cranes arrived and would help with the rescue and to salvage the ferry, which sank not far from the southern city of Mokpo.
But salvage operations hadn't started yet because of the rescue attempts.
Out of 29 crewmembers, 20 people, including the captain, Lee Joon-seok, 68, survived, the coast guard said.
Family members of children are still missing in
the sunken ferry the Sewol gather at a gymnasium in Jindo, South Korea,
Thursday, April 17, 2014. Fears rose Thursday for the fate of more than
280 passengers still missing more than 24 hours after their ferry
flipped onto its side and filled with water off the southern coast of
South Korea. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Kim
Soo-hyun, a senior coast guard official, said officials were
investigating whether the captain got on one of the first rescue boats.The 146-meter (480-foot) Sewol had left Incheon on the northwestern coast of South Korea on Tuesday for the overnight journey to the southern resort island of Jeju.
There were 475 people aboard, including 325 students from Danwon High School in Ansan, which is near Seoul,
It was three hours from its destination Wednesday morning when it began to list for an unknown reason.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye speaks
during a meeting with parents whose children are now missing in Ship
Sewol at a gymnasium in Jindo, South Korea, Thursday, April 17, 2014.
Fears rose Thursday for the fate of more than 280 passengers, many of
them from a high school on a four-day trip, still missing more than 24
hours after their ferry flipped onto its side and filled with water off
the southern coast of South Korea. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Do Kwang-hwan)
KOREA OUT
Oh Yong-seok, a helmsman
on the ferry with 10 years of shipping experience, said that when the
crew gathered on the bridge and sent a distress call, the ship was
already listing more than 5 degrees, the critical angle at which a
vessel can be brought back to even keel.The first instructions from the captain were for passengers to put on life jackets and stay where they were, Oh said.
A third mate reported that the ship could not be righted, and the captain ordered another attempt, which also failed, Oh said.
A crew member then tried to reach a lifeboat but fell because the vessel was tilting, prompting the first mate to suggest to the captain that he order an evacuation, Oh said.
Blue search light cast by South Korean Coast
Guard helicopter shows a sunken ferry in the water off the southern
coast near Jindo, South Korea, Thursday, April 17, 2014. Fears rose
Thursday for the fate of more than 280 passengers still missing more
than 24 hours after their ferry flipped onto its side and filled with
water off the southern coast of South Korea. (AP Photo/Yonhap) KOREA
OUT
About 30 minutes after
passengers were told to stay in place, the captain finally gave the
order to evacuate, Oh said, adding that he wasn't sure in the confusion
and chaos on the bridge if the order was relayed to the passengers. Several survivors told the AP that they never heard any evacuation order.
By then, it was impossible for crew members to move to passengers' rooms to help them because the ship was tilted at an impossibly acute angle, he said.
A rescue personal looks at a sea in windy and
rainy day at a port in Jindo, south of Seoul, South Korea, Thursday,
April 17, 2014. An immediate evacuation order was not issued for the
ferry that sank off South Korea's southern coast, likely with about 290
people trapped inside, because officers on the bridge were trying to
stabilize the vessel after it started to list, a crew member said
Thursday. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
The delay in evacuation also likely prevented lifeboats from being deployed.'We couldn't even move one step. The slope was too big,' said Oh, who escaped with about a dozen others, including the captain.
The last major ferry disaster in South Korea was in 1993, when 292 people were killed.
FILE - This undated file photo shows the South
Korean ferry Sewol that sank Wednesday, April 16, 2014 off South Korea's
southern coast with 475 people aboard, likely with scores of people
trapped inside. The Sewol now sits ¿ with just part of its keel visible ¿
in waters off Mokpo, about 470 kilometers (290 miles) from Seoul. (AP
Photo/Yonhap, File) KOREA OUT
AP10ThingsToSee - South Korean Coast Guard
officers search for missing passengers aboard a sunken ferry in the
waters off the southern coast near Jindo, South Korea on Thursday, April
17, 2014. An immediate evacuation order was not issued for the ferry,
likely with scores of people trapped inside, because officers on the
bridge were trying to stabilize the vessel after it started to list amid
confusion and chaos, a crew member said Thursday. (AP Photo/Ahn
Young-joon)
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