294 Missing After Ferry Sinks off South Korea's Coast

[ameriken]

294 Missing After Ferry Sinks off South Korea's Coast

SEOUL, South Korea April 16, 2014

Nearly 300 people are missing and at least four are confirmed dead after a ferry carrying 462 people, many of them students, sank in cold waters off South Korea’s southern coast Wednesday.

There were fears of a big jump in the number of deaths, as dozens of boats, helicopters and divers scrambled to rescue passengers who had been on the ferry travelling to the southern island of Jeju. Those rescue efforts will continue overnight. One rescued passenger said he believed that many people had been trapped inside the ferry when it sank.

The confirmed fatalities are a female crew member, 22, and a male student.

The ferry, identified as the Sewol, was sailing to the southern island of Jeju when it sent a distress call as it began leaning to one side. The passengers include more than 300 students from Danwon High School in Ansan, near Seoul, who were on a school trip.

More:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/ferry-sinks-off-south-korea-coast/story?id=23339906

[Randy W]

 

294 Missing After Ferry Sinks off South Korea's Coast

SEOUL, South Korea April 16, 2014

. . .

http://abcnews.go.com/International/ferry-sinks-off-south-korea-coast/story?id=23339906

 

 

fixed link

[dnoblett]

Tragic messages from the drowing.

Doomed teens texted parents from sinking Korean ferry

With water quickly flooding the decks and a mammoth South Korean ferry about to sink, desperate students took to their smartphones Wednesday to text their last goodbyes.

“Mom, I want to say this before it’s too late,” one student wrote. “I love you.”
That student is among the 290 reported still missing.

Another student traded texts with his mom, who had no clue the ferry was in danger.
“Mom, I might not be able to tell you in person. I love you,” the student texted, according to a Korean news agency.
“Me too, son. I love you,” the mother texted back, followed by three heart symbols.
He was among those rescued from the boat, the Sewol.

“Dad, don’t worry. I’ve got a life vest on and we’re huddled together,” a high-school girl wrote.
“I know the rescue is under way, but make your way out if you can,” he replied.
“Dad, I can’t walk out,” she replied. “The corridor is full of kids, and it’s too tilted.”
She is still missing.


MORE:

http://nypost.com/2014/04/16/doomed-teens-texted-parents-from-sinking-korean-ferry/

[dnoblett]

May as well add one more casualty to this disaster, I guess they could not live with this.

 

 

 

Captain first to flee sinking ferry; vice principal found hanged

 

MOKPO, South Korea — Investigations into South Korea’s ferry disaster focused on the sharp turn the vessel took just before it started listing and whether a quicker evacuation order by the captain could have saved lives, officials said Friday, as rescuers scrambled to find 270 people still missing and feared dead.

 

Prosecutors have also issued an arrest warrant for the ferry’s captain, who is believed to have jumped ship while students were still stuck on board.

 

Tragedy struck in another way Friday when a high school vice principal who had been rescued from the ferry was found hanging from a pine tree on Jindo, an island near the ferry wreckage where rescued passengers have been housed, police said.

 

Besides the teacher, at least 28 people are now confirmed dead from the ferry, the Sewol, which sank Wednesday. Officials said there were 179 survivors and about 270 people remain missing, many of them high school students. With the chances of their survival becoming slimmer with each passing hour, this sinking was shaping up to be one of South Korea’s worst disasters, made all the more heartbreaking by the likely loss of so many young people, age 16 or 17.

 

MORE....

http://nypost.com/2014/04/18/vice-principal-saved-from-sinking-korean-ferry-found-hanged/

[Zeng]

As tragic as these sinkings are, it seems that part of the world has a "fix" on these ferry sinkings not a year goes by that a sinking is being reported.

[ameriken]

Asian transportation and ocean are just not getting along too well lately.

[johnxiaoying]

A few years ago we took an old freighter converted to a tourist boat from Beihei to Weizhou dao. I never saw a life boat or life preserver. I'm always concerned with transportation in China except for the bullet trains, they're cool.

 

The parents of the kids in Korea should each be allowed to cut a piece off the captain to feed the sharks.