Transcript reveals confusion over ferry evacuation

Transcript reveals confusion over ferry evacuation

JINDO - A transcript released Sunday of communications with the South Korean ferry that sank details crippling confusion and indecision, with a crew member questioning whether an evacuation was the right move well after the ship began listing dangerously.

 "If this ferry evacuates passengers, will they be rescued right away?" a crew member on the ferry Sewol asked Jindo Vessel Traffic Services Centre (VTS) at 9.24am Wednesday, about a half-hour after the ship began listing. That followed several statements from the ship saying it was impossible for people aboard the ship to even move, and another in which it said it was "impossible to broadcast" instructions.

"Even if it's impossible to broadcast, please go out and let the passengers wear life jackets and put on more clothing," an unidentified VTS official urged just before the Sewol asked about the prospects for rescue.

"The rescue of human lives of Sewol ferry ... the captain should make your own decision and evacuate them," the VTS official said. "We don't know the situation very well. The captain should make the final decision and decide whether you're going to evacuate passengers or not."

"I'm not talking about that," responded the unidentified ferry crew member. "I asked, if they evacuate now, can they be rescued right away?"

The VTS official said patrol boats would arrive in 10 minutes, but did not mention that another civilian ship was already nearby and had said 10 minutes earlier that it would rescue anyone who went overboard.

The captain initially ordered passengers to stay in their rooms, and took more than a half hour to issue an evacuation order — an order several passengers have said they never heard.

Family members of missing passengers who were on the South Korean ferry Sewol, which sank in the sea off Jindo, look out to sea . (Reuters Photo)

At least 56 people were confirmed to have died in the sinking of the ferry, national media reported on Sunday, as relatives of the passengers clashed with police on Jindo.

The death toll passed 50 after divers pulled 16 bodies directly from the wreckage of the submerged ship, Yonhap news agency reported.

About 560 divers are involved in the rescue effort, Yonhap said. The pace of the operation apparently increased after divers set up several underwater routes using ropes leading to the capsized vessel.

Over 250 people are still missing, mostly high school students, after the accident on Wednesday off the country's south-western coast. Only 174 are known to have survived.

Dozens of angry relatives of the passengers clashed with police earlier Sunday on Jindo island, near the site of the sinking.

The families accused the government of mishandling its response to the disaster, Yonhap reported.

Police reportedly stopped the relatives from making a protest march to the mainland.

The first funerals were held Sunday for students killed in the disaster, Yonhap said.

There were 476 passengers and crew on the ship, including at least 320 students and 15 teachers from Danwon High School in Ansan, near Seoul, when it began to capsize during a routine journey from Incheon to the southern resort island of Jeju.

An official investigating the disaster said they had almost ruled out the possibility that the boat hit a submerged rock, and believed it was more likely the ship lost balance after a sharp turn, Yonhap reported.

The vessel's captain, who according to initial investigations was not at the helm when the ship hit problems, was arrested on Saturday.

Arrest warrants were issued for two other crew members.

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