April 16/14 - Ferry Sinks Off South Korean Coast

[MuffyBee]

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/south-korea-ferry-disaster/south-korea-ferry-heartache-pair-tied-life-jackets-together-n88421
South Korea Ferry Heartache: Pair Tied Life Jackets Together
April 24, 2014

A boy and girl trapped in a sinking South Korean ferry tied their life jacket cords together, a diver who recovered their bodies said Thursday – the latest heartbreaking twist in the grim task of recovery at the scene.

The diver said he had to separate the pair because he could not carry two corpses to the surface at the same time.

"I started to cry thinking that they didn't want to leave each other," he told the Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper on the island of Jindo, near where the overloaded Sewol went down on April 16.
 
 


Mourners visit a memorial for victims of the ferry disaster in Ansan, South Korea, on Thursday.

[MuffyBee]

When we learned this tragedy had gone beyond rescue and it would be recovery of bodies (barring a miracle) we knew there would be so much sadness and sorrow.  Yesterday, I read in the article posted above this one how a boy and a girl had knotted their life vests together.     In this article, it explains there were 48 girls in a cabin intended for 30, indicating many ran into the same room when the ferry tilted.  I cannot imagine their terror. Most bodies had their life vests on, but the sad part was the with the positioning of the boat, the exits to escape were submerged, below the water, making escape difficult (if not impossible). 

In another article above, we learned earlier the boat's cargo load exceeded the recommendations by three times the amount.  This article says authorities are saying the boat wasn't overloaded.  The person at the wheel didn't have experience guiding the boat through that area and we still don't have an explanation why there was the sudden turn.  Now, a sister boat is being looked at and there appear to be many problems there too.  It would appear there were modifications to both boats to add to the carrying capacity of passengers.    


http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/25/world/asia/south-korea-ship-sinking/
Divers find cabins crammed with bodies inside sunken ferry
April 25, 2014

Jindo, South Korea (CNN) -- Divers searching the wreck of the sunken South Korean ferry are finding cabins overfilled with people, but they are encountering major obstacles in recovering bodies, South Korean officials said Friday.
Searchers discovered the bodies of 48 girls wearing life vests in a cabin with a capacity of 30, indicating many passengers ran into the same room when the ship tilted.
The ferry Sewol is on the sea floor and resting with its right side up, said Capt. Kim Jin-hwang, a South Korean navy officer commanding the rescue operation.
Searchers are now trying to reach a dormitory-style cabin where they believe as many as 50 girls may be, he said.
 
A sister ship of the sunken ferry operated by the same company was found to have multiple safety concerns, investigators told CNN.
The prosecutor's office leading the investigation in the southern city of Mokpo said that authorities have been looking at the passenger ferry Ohamana, a ship owned by Chonghaejin Marine. That company also owns the Sewol, which sank off the country's southwestern coast on April 16 with 476 people on board.
The Mokpo Joint Investigation Force Headquarters examined the Ohamana because of its similarities to the Sewol and to get an idea of how the Sewol may have been operating.
Investigators inspected the ship and took away documents from the ship's offices Friday. They studied the emergency escape plans and found the following issues:
• Of the life rafts on board, 40 did not work.
• The emergency slides did not work.
• There was no equipment to tie down cars.
• The equipment for tying down containers didn't work very well.

Like the Sewol, the Ohamana had been modified to add more passengers, the prosecutor's office said.
 

The ferry Sewol lurched on its side and capsized last week. Among the passengers were 325 high school students on a field trip to the resort island of Jeju.
The number of confirmed dead rose to 185 on Friday, with 117 still missing, according to the South Korean coast guard.
Hopes of finding any survivors in the sunken ferry have all but evaporated after news that divers have found no air pockets on the third and fourth levels of the ship, where many passengers were thought to have been trapped.
Rescuers saved 174 people on the day the ferry sank, including 75 high school students, but no survivors have been found since.
 
Authorities do not yet know what caused the sinking, but a widening criminal investigation has ensnared the ship's captain and more than a dozen other crew members and led prosecutors to search the offices of the company that owns the ship.
Officials also searched the offices of 20 affiliated companies and the home of Yoo Byung-un, the man whose family is believed to be behind the company, looking for any evidence of wrongdoing that could have led to the ship's sinking.
Among other things, investigators have said they will look into whether modifications to the ship in 2013 could have altered the ship's balance and contributed to what happened.
Kim Yong-rok, an opposition lawmaker who represents Jindo, an island near where the ship sank, told CNN that modifications to add 117 more passenger cabins to the ship raised the ferry's center of gravity.
Kim said the work on the ferry took place in 2013 after the Sewol was purchased from a Japanese company. The ferry's passenger capacity was expanded from 804 to 921, he said.
South Korean prosecutors were unable to confirm those details for CNN.
But they are investigating the private organization responsible for inspecting and certifying ships for the South Korean government, which signed off on the work.
 

[Tamikosmom]

All 15 crew that navigated South Korean ferry in custody, prosecutor says
Published April 26, 2014

SEOUL, South Korea –  All 15 people involved in navigating the South Korean ferry that sank and left 302 people dead or missing are now in custody after authorities on Saturday detained four more crew members, a prosecutor said. ....

All are accused of negligence and of failing to help passengers in need as the ferry Sewol sank April 16. The captain initially told passengers to stay in their rooms and took half an hour to issue an evacuation order, by which time the ship was tilting too severely for many people to get out.

Ten days after the sinking, 187 bodies have been recovered and 115 people remain missing. Only 174 people survived, including 22 of the 29 crew members. ....

Officials in charge of the search effort said Saturday that divers have reached two large rooms where many of the lost may lie dead, but the search had to be suspended because of bad weather. Currents were already strong Saturday morning, as they were in the first several days of the search, when divers struggled in vain even to get inside the submerged vessel.

<snipped>

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/04/26/all-15-crew-that-navigated-ferry-held/?intcmp=latestnews

[Tamikosmom]

South Korea’s prime minister resigns amid criticism of government over ferry disaster
Published April 27, 2014

SEOUL, South Korea –  South Korea's prime minister resigned Sunday over the government's handling of a ferry sinking that has left more than 300 people dead or missing and led to widespread shame, fury and finger-pointing, blaming "deep-rooted evils" in society for the tragedy.

South Korean executive power is largely concentrated in the president, so Chung Hong-won's resignation appears to be symbolic. Presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook said President Park Geun-hye would accept the resignation, but did not say when Chung would leave office.

Chung's resignation comes amid rising indignation over claims by the victims' relatives that the government did not do enough to rescue or protect their loved ones. Most of the dead and missing were high school students on a school trip.

<snipped>

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/04/26/south-koreas-prime-minister-offers-to-resign-over-ferry-disaster/

[MuffyBee]

http://theinsidekorea.com/2014/04/ferry-disaster-ferry-investigation-targets-maritime-police/
Ferry Disaster : Ferry investigation targets maritime police
April 27, 2014

 
188, with 114 still unaccounted for, as of 6 p.m. Sunday.

As part of the investigation into the accident, investigators requested search warrants for the Coast Guard in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, to look into whether the maritime police mishandled its rescue response. Investigators plan to raid the situation room of the Coast Guard on Monday if its warrant is granted by the court.

Prosecutors will also investigate whether the maritime police reacted to the distress call in accordance with its manual and whether their response was appropriate.

Public criticism has mounted over the Coast Guard’s initial response after it was discovered that it had asked a teenage passenger, who first called for help, about the latitude and longitude of the site.

Earlier in the day, prosecutors raided Jeju Vessel Traffic Service and seized communications log and surveillance camera records to look into possibilities of negligence of duties, officials said.

The Jeju VTS was the first service that Sewol crew members contacted for urgent help, a few minutes after passenger’s report to the maritime police. Receiving the report from the ferry crew, the Jeju VTS passed the report to the Jindo VTS as the ferry was within the Jindo VTS control area.

This is the second raid following the Jindo VTS office. On Saturday, the authorities seized communication and phone records that were conducted between the Jindo office and the ferry crew.

The Jindo VTS is accused of neglecting its duties to monitor the ferry in the emergency situation in its control area. It did not acknowledge the situation of the ferry for 18 minutes from the occurrence, investigators said.

Investigators will look into any delays or mishandlings regarding the communication of between the two VTS offices.

While most of the nation’s VTS offices including the Jeju one are under the Oceans and Fisheries Ministy’s control, the Jindo office is under the maritime police’s authority.

The divided control of the VTS offices may have caused some delays in the initial rescue work, critics suspected.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/28/world/asia/south-korea-ship-sinking/
3 arrested over evidence, call center raided in South Korea ferry probe
April 28, 2014

Jindo, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean authorities arrested three people Monday on suspicion of destroying evidence connected to the sinking of the ferry Sewol. Investigators also raided a Coast Guard office in a probe of how officials handled the first emergency call from a passenger.
The director and two other people with the Korea Shipping Association's Incheon office were arrested and accused of destroying evidence related to the probe of Chonghaejin, the company that owns the ferry, prosecutor Song In-taek said.
The Korea Shipping Association is a trade group that promotes the interests of the country's shipping industry.
The site raided was the Coast Guard building in Mokpo, which includes the South Jeolla province emergency center -- a facility that provides 119 services, akin to the 911 emergency service in the United States. Investigators are looking into possible dereliction of duty, said Yang Joong-jin, the chief prosecutor in Mokpo.
Police and prosecutors seized documents and recordings from the day of the ferry's sinking, state-run news agency Yonhap reported.
The office received the first distress call from the ship when an 18-year-old boy dialed the 119 emergency number, the report said. "According to a transcript of the recording, a Coast Guard official asked the student to provide the latitude and longitude of his location, sparking criticism that authorities wasted crucial minutes before starting a rescue operation. The investigation team said it will analyze the work journals and transcripts of the recording to see whether the authorities properly fulfilled their duties," Yonhap added.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/27/world/asia/south-korea-ferry-video/
Videos capturing ferry's final moments fuel fresh outrage over ship's fate
April 29, 2014

Jindo, South Korea (CNN) -- In one video, the captain of the sinking South Korean ferry scrambles to safety. In another, stranded passengers panic.
"Wow, it's tilting a lot. We're tilting to this side. Can't move," one says.
"You think I'm really going to die?" another cries.
The two recordings fueled fresh outrage Monday over the Sewol ferry's sinking as questions swirled over why so many perished in the disaster while many members of the ship's crew survived.
The video capturing passengers' panic was recorded by a teenage boy on the vessel, according to South Korean national TV network JTBC. The teen's father gave the network the footage after authorities recovered his son's body and found the cell phone. Its memory card was still intact, JTBC reported.
The network shared a roughly three-minute audio clip of the video with CNN, which translated the exchanges.
The clip provides a horrifying glimpse into the uncertainty and desperation inside the ferry as it rolled.
Meanwhile, outside the ferry, rescuers were circling, a video released by South Korea's coast guard shows.
The video shows the coast guard's rescue of Lee Joon-seok, the ship's captain, who scrambles off the stricken vessel in his underwear.
Speaking out about it for the first time on Monday, the men who rescued him said they had no idea who he was until later.
"During the rescue operation, people were just dropping in the sea," South Korean coast guard Capt. Kim Kyung Il told reporters. "Everyone was wearing a life vest, so we couldn't tell who was passenger, and who was crew."
Arrests and an investigation
Many South Koreans have lambasted the government's response to the disaster, saying it has been too slow. South Korean authorities are pressing a criminal investigation.
The ship's captain and 14 others have been arrested. Prosecutors in Mokpo, who are leading the ferry investigation, tell CNN that all the 15 crew members in charge of sailing and the engine room have been indicted and are being held in the Mokpo prison.
Authorities also arrested three people Monday on suspicion of destroying evidence connected to the sinking of the ferry.
On Sunday, South Korea's Prime Minister announced his resignation, saying he wants to take responsibility for the initial reaction to the disaster.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/29/world/asia/south-korea-ferry-sinking/
South Korean president apologizes for response to ferry sinking
April 29, 2014

[MuffyBee]

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/25387237/off-duty-captain-warned-ferry-had-stability-risks
Off-duty captain warned ferry had stability risks
April 30, 2014

MOKPO, South Korea (AP) - An off-duty captain of the sunken South Korean ferry has told investigators that the owners ignored his warning that the ship shouldn't carry too much cargo because it wasn't very stable, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The captain, whom prosecutors will only identify by his surname, Shin, was on vacation on the day of the accident two weeks ago that has left more than 300, mostly high school students, dead or missing and has caused widespread shame and grief. The ferry was piloted April 16 by a substitute captain, Lee Joon-seok, who is now being detained along with 14 other crew members who were involved in navigating the Sewol.

Yang Jung-jin, a senior prosecutor on the team investigating the sinking off the southern coast, wouldn't say when the captain warned the company and didn't know whether Shin made multiple warnings about stability.

A stability test report on Jan. 24 from the Korean Register of Shipping showed that the ferry became top-heavy and less stable after a modification of the ship from October 2012 to February 2013 that involved adding more cabins in some of the ship's floors.
 
Senior prosecutor Ahn Sang-don, also part of the investigation team, said Wednesday that authorities detained two employees at Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd., the ferry's owner, on suspicions of accidental homicide stemming from professional negligence in connection with the sinking. Ahn wouldn't identify the employees.

Meanwhile, family members of high school students killed in the sinking dismissed as insincere President Park Geun-hye's apology for the government's handling of the disaster. They called for the quick retrieval of the missing. The ship carried 476 people, mostly from a single high school. Only 174 people survived, including 22 of the 29 crew members.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/05/world/asia/south-korea-ship-sinking/
Diver searching sunken ferry off South Korea dies
May 6, 2014

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- A diver searching the sunken Sewol ferry died Tuesday, according to South Korea's Government Rescue Headquarters.
"A civilian diver, Lee, lost the communication line at 25 meters under the sea five minutes into his first dive," spokesman Koh Myung-suk said.
"By the time his colleagues went to save him, Lee was unconscious and unable to breathe by himself," Koh said.
 
Not including the diver, the death toll in the ferry disaster has risen to 264, with 38 people still missing, the government reported.
 
Nearly 130 divers are combing the ship, looking for the remaining missing bodies.
 Ferry survivors honor lost classmates First ship on scene saw no evacuation
The search-and-rescue operation has turned into a grueling recovery of corpses. No one has been found alive since the ferry sank April 16 with a passenger load largely made up of high school students on a field trip.
The work has become even more difficult because divers have faced closed cabin doors blocked by debris.
Corralling the debris has been difficult for search teams.
Mattresses and clothing from the ship have been found up to 9 miles (15 km) away from the accident site, said Park Seung-ki, a spokesman for the rescue operation.
Large stow and trawler nets will be set up around the sunken ship to catch items that may float away, he said. At the same time, some three dozen ships will be clearing an oil spill from the ferry, which is threatening the livelihood of the local fishermen.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/world/asia/employees-of-south-korean-ferry-operator-are-arrested.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0
4 Employed by Operator of Doomed South Korean Ferry Are Arrested
May 6, 2014

SEOUL, South Korea — Four officials with the operator of the doomed South Korean ferry have been arrested on charges of overloading the ship with cargo, a senior prosecutor said on Tuesday, as President Park Geun-hye attributed one of her country’s worst peacetime disasters to corporate “greed.
 
With the arrest of four officials of Chonghaejin Marine Company, including a 62-year-old executive who was put behind bars on Tuesday, investigators formally identified overloading as one of the causes of the disaster, which left 263 dead and 39 missing as of Tuesday.
The officials faced criminal charges, including accidental homicide. They were accused of contributing to the deaths of passengers by ordering the overloading of the ship or ignoring the danger that the excessive cargo and its improper stowage caused to the vessel’s stability.
 

“A real tragedy of the disaster was that those students who followed the instructions died,” said Bark Soon-il, head of the Korea Social Policy Institute in Seoul. “And those adults who made the rules but didn’t follow them escaped.”

[MuffyBee]

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/south-korean-ferry-accident-two-more-missing-114050800436_1.html
South Korean ferry accident: Two more missing
Two unregistered Chinese nationals onboard were detected to be missing
May 8, 2014

The number of people missing in the South Korean ferry sinking disaster rose after two unregistered Chinese nationals onboard were detected to be missing, authorities said Thursday.

There was no change in the total number of passengers, but the number of those missing has risen, Xinhua cited from an interim report on rescue operations by Coast Guard chief Kim Seok-kyun.

As of Thursday, 269 people have been confirmed dead, while 35 are still missing. The number of those saved was 172.

The number of those rescued fell by two due to a double report and a mistaken calculation. The number of missing rose by two as two Chinese nationals unregistered in the passenger list were added, Kim said.

A total of four Chinese nationals were onboard the ferry, which sank off the country's southwestern coast April 16.

On the 23rd day into search, no bodies were retrieved overnight as climatic conditions became worse in the area.
 
The number of injured divers kept rising as they were exhausted amid the protracted search operations. Six more divers received decompression treatment Wednesday, taking the total number of those injured to 24.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27465378
S Korea to break up coastguard after ferry disaster
May 18, 2014

South Korea is to break up its coastguard in the wake of the ferry disaster in which about 300 people died, says President Park Geun-hye.

In a televised address, she apologised formally for the sinking.

A new safety agency would handle rescue duties, with investigative functions passing to the police, she said.

The Sewol ferry disaster on 16 April killed 281 passengers, most of whom were high school students. Another 23 are still missing.

"The ultimate responsibility of the poor response to this accident lies with me," President Park said, quoted by the AFP news agency.

The ferry captain and three members of the crew have been charged with manslaughter.

Prosecutors have indicted another 11 crew members for negligence.

Only 172 passengers survived the sinking of the ferry, including 22 of the 29 crew members.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-06-10/south-korean-ferry-captain-rejects-homicide-charge
South Korean Ferry Captain Rejects Homicide Charge
June 10, 2014

The captain of the South Korean ferry that sank in April killing more than 300 rejected homicide charges against him at the first day of his trial while relatives of the victims jeered the crew of the ship.

Captain Lee Joon Seok, 68, went on trial today along with 14 other crew members of the Sewol ferry at Gwangju district court, south of Seoul. Prosecutors accused the crew of abandoning the ferry on April 16 while passengers -- most of them school children on a field trip -- were instructed to stay in their cabins.

“Lee said through his lawyer he did all he could to save the passengers, but couldn’t do anything more, because the ship had already capsized too much,” Hahn Jee Hyung, a court spokesman said by phone. Three other crewmembers charged with homicide also rejected the allegations, he said.

Only 172 of the 476 people aboard the Sewol were rescued. Divers have yet to find the remaining 12 bodies after retrieving 292 victims from the ferry that capsized off the southwestern coast of the country.
 

Homicide is punishable by death in South Korea, although no one has been executed for the offense since 1997. A separate trial is scheduled later this month for the chairman of the ferry operator and other senior employees charged with allowing excess cargo on the ship and other safety breaches.

Authorities have also been hunting for weeks for a man they say is the de-facto owner of the ferry company, saying he neglected to improve safety and crew training. The government is offering a reward of nearly $500,000 for information leading to the arrest of Yoo Byung Eun.

“It is absurd” that prosecutors still have not taken custody of Yoo, South Korean President Park Geun Hye said today during a cabinet meeting.
 

[MuffyBee]

How is this "religious oppression" ?  Yoo is both head of the Evangelical Baptist Church in Korea in Anseong City and the owner of the sunken ferry Sewol.  Does it make him exempt from law as a business owner because he's head of a church? 

http://abcnews.go.com/International/cops-raid-church-searching-owner-doomed-ferry/story?id=24090338
Cops Raid Church Searching for Owner of Doomed Ferry
June 11, 2014

Thousands of South Korean police raided a church compound today searching for the fugitive billionaire owner of a ferry that sank in April killing more than 300 people.

About 6,000 police officers in riot gear with helmets and plastic shields forced their way into the compound headquarters of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Korea in Anseong City, 50 miles south of Seoul, but failed to find Yoo Byung-eun.

Yoo, 73, is the head of the church and the owner of the sunken ferry Sewol. Police have offered a $500,000 reward for his capture.

Investigation is underway as to whether the accident was caused by lack of safety standards on the ferry and regulatory violations. The tragedy traumatized the country since most of the victims were high school students on an outing and many of the ferry's crew members, including the captain, escaped the sinking ship leaving the passengers trapped below. The crew was in court Tuesday to face criminal charges.

Police arrested four church members today suspected of assisting Yoo to elude the manhunt and two other church members for allegedly obstructing the raid. Hundreds of devoted church members have been staging a sit-in at the gate of the Anseong compound for weeks singing hymns and chanting “stop the religious oppressions” beneath banners that said “We will protect Yoo Byung-eun even if 100,000 church members are arrested.”

The sprawling church compound includes ranches, fields, a fish farm and an auditorium that can house up to 5,000 people, according to media reports.

In addition to the reward for Yoo, the government has offered a $100,000 bounty for Yoo's oldest son. One of his daughters was arrested in France last month.

Yoo's church has a controversial reputation in South Korea. In 1987 32 people, who critics suspect were church members, were found dead in the attic of a factory near Seoul in what authorities said was a collective murder-suicide pact. The church has denied involvement.

Yoo was investigated over the deaths after a probe into the dead people's financial transactions showed some of their money was funneled to him. He was cleared of suspicions that he was behind the suicides because of a lack of evidence, but was convicted on a separate fraud charge.

The church is believed to have about 10,000 members.

[MuffyBee]

  

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/17/us-southkorea-ferry-idUSKBN0ES0L320140617
Accused South Korea ferry crew say rescue was coastguard's job
June 17, 2014

(Reuters) - The surviving crew of a South Korean ferry that sank in April killing more than 300 people and sparking a nationwide outpouring of grief argued on Tuesday that it was up to the coastguard to rescue the passengers, not them.

Lawyers for the 15, who face charges ranging from homicide to negligence, said that once coastguard rescuers had reached the sharply listing vessel, the crew's job was over.

"The crew share the belief that they thought the coastguard should be fully capable of the rescue because there was a distress call and they arrived and they were the ones with professional skills and equipment," lawyer Im Ju-young told the court on the second day of the trial in Gwangju, the closest city to the scene of the disaster.
 
Of the 476 passengers and crew on board, 339 were children and teachers from the same school on the outskirts of Seoul. Only 172 people were rescued and the remainder are all presumed to have drowned.

Crew members, including the captain, were caught on video abandoning ship while the children stayed in their cabins as told, wearing life jackets and awaiting further orders.

Im represents three crew members, including one charged with homicide. The court granted a defence request to call coastguard officials who first reached the sinking Sewol as witnesses.

The court also plans to call some of the surviving students from the Danwon High School to hear testimony after they finish their term exams, presiding Judge Lim Young-youb said.

Captain Lee Joon-seok, 68, and three senior crew are charged with homicide, facing a maximum sentence of death. Two crew are charged with fleeing and abandoning ship that carries a maximum term of life in prison. Nine face negligence charges.

"They were in a panic and it didn't even occur to them to go to rescue action stations," state-appointed defence lawyer Ju Chul-soo, who represents two of the defendants, told the court.
 
DEFENCE STRATEGY

The lawyers have now settled to the task of combing through more than 1,400 items of evidence submitted by the prosecution.

Judges said they would travel to Incheon, where the ferry company was based, with three of the defendants and their lawyers on June 30 to inspect the Sewol's sister ship to gather any evidence that may be related to the case.

Last week, defence lawyer Lee Kwang-jae, who represents the captain, argued that the charge of homicide was excessive and the primary responsibility fell on the coastguard.

"I think it is reasonable that rescue activities for the passengers should be done by the coastguard that comprehensively managed and monitored the accident and handled rescue-related equipment, rather than the crew members," he said.

Im, Lee and Ju are among the six defence lawyers appointed by the court and face the unpopular task of building a defence when the crew have already been found guilty by an angry public.

All are junior lawyers who have been recently admitted to the bar and have yet to open private practices.

They declined to comment on strategy when reached at an office they share near the court but they have consistently tried to build an argument that there was clear absence of wilful negligence.

The coastguard has been publicly criticised for its slow and ineffective response. President Park Geun-hye, in an emotional public apology, last month said she would break up the coastguard and transfer the rescue role to an agency yet to be created.

Legal experts said putting the blame solely on the coastguard was unlikely to work.

"It's barely convincing," said Kim Hyun, a maritime lawyer.

"The crew stayed on the bridge for about 40 minutes and didn't do anything to rescue passengers although they knew the ship was going to sink. What crew members are claiming is hard to accept."

Authorities are still searching for Yoo Byung-un, 73, head of the family that owned the operator of the ferry, on charges of embezzlement seen as a key factor that led to compromised safety management.

Police have arrested executives of the ferry operator and subsidiaries of the investment firm held by Yoo's family but they have yet to go on trial.

The Gwangju court next sits on June 24.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/south-korean-ferry-operator-ceo-blamed-sinking-article-1.1837281
South Korean ferry operator's CEO blamed for sinking that left 300 dead or missing
Prosecutors slammed Kim Han-sik, the CEO of Chonghaejin Marine Co., and four employees for causing the accident by overloading the ship with poorly stowed cargo, a practice that allegedly earned the company an extra $3 million in profit in 2013.
June 20, 2014

GWANGJU, South Korea — Prosecutors on Friday said the CEO and four employees of the operator of a sunken South Korean ferry caused the accident by overloading the ship with poorly stowed cargo after a risky redesign and neglecting safety by spending less than $2 last year on crew training.

The defendants countered that the cause of the April disaster that left more than 300 people dead or missing wasn't yet clear. The five had been expected to verbally enter pleas at a preliminary hearing Friday at Gwangju District Court, but their lawyers said they needed more time and would submit written pleas later. Another hearing is scheduled in three weeks.
 
Prosecutors indicted the company officials for alleged professional negligence and violating a law on measures required for safe maritime navigation.
 
The CEO of Chonghaejin, Kim Han-sik, 71, did not deny that the ferry was overloaded with cargo and had been redesigned, but contended that it was questionable whether those factors led to the sinking, according to his lawyer, Kang Seok-won.
Defendant Nam Ho-man, who headed Chonghaejin's cargo team, never told workers to load as much cargo as possible, didn't know the ferry's cargo limit and didn't know how much cargo was loaded on the day of the accident, according to his lawyer, Kim Jun-seong.

Meanwhile, prosecutor Park Jae-eok said the five defendants neglected the passengers' safety in return for economic benefits and must be held responsible.

Kim, the CEO, encouraged managers at a weekly gathering to meet the ferry's cargo goals even as he sought to sell the ship because of instability caused by the redesign, mounting losses and too much cost, Park said. If the cargo goal was not met, the weekly meeting was used to caution employees, he said.
The prosecutor also said that the employees at Chonghaejin were responsible for the captain and crew's abandonment of the sinking ship and the failure to protect passengers because they did not oversee sailors' emergency training and spent only $2 on training last year. That money covered the fee for issuing a paper for a sailor who received education elsewhere, Park said.
 
All but one of 15 crew members responsible for navigating the ferry have pleaded not guilty to charges linked to their alleged failure to protect passengers, who were mostly high school students on a school trip.
The crew members, including the captain, said through their lawyers that their employer was responsible for the ship's sinking because sailors had no control over cargo. They said the coast guard was responsible for rescuing the passengers.

A total of 292 bodies have been recovered and 12 people are still missing from the ferry sinking, one of the most deadly peacetime disasters in South Korea.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/21/us-southkorea-ferry-idUSKBN0EW08X20140621
Ferry sinking: South Korea closes net round family of most wanted man
June 21, 2014

(Reuters) - The wife of South Korea's most wanted man, a businessman linked to a ferry disaster in which hundreds of school children drowned, was arrested on Saturday, prosecutors said, as the net tightens around the fugitive's family.

Police and prosecutors arrested Kwon Yoon-ja, 72, on suspicion of embezzlement after chasing her for more than 20 days, an official said.

Prosecutors and police are seeking Yoo Byung-un, 73, who has eluded one of the country's biggest manhunts for more than a month. The husband of Yoo's younger sister, a former ambassador to the Czech Republic, was arrested on Friday on suspicion of helping Yoo escape arrest.

Yoo is wanted on charges of embezzlement, negligence and tax evasion stemming from a web of business holdings centred on I-One-I, an investment vehicle owned by his sons that ran the shipping company, Chonghaejin Marine.

Chonghaejin owned the Sewol, which sank off the southwest coast on April 16 killing more than 300 people, many of them school children, on a routine journey from Incheon on the mainland to the southern holiday island of Jeju.

Authorities suspect Kwon, who owns one of Yoo's subsidiary companies that sells health supplements, poured funds into companies owned by her husband and son.
 
Five Chonghaejin employees, including company boss Kim Han-sik, pleaded not guilty to criminal negligence in court on Friday.

"I feel strongly about the responsibility I have as chief for an accident that caused massive casualties," Yonhap news agency quoted Kim as saying. "But I have doubts that it was my fault the ferry sank and left so many people dead."

Yoo's elder brother, Yoo Byung-il, has been arrested on charges of embezzlement and violations of real estate laws. His daughter, Yoo Som-na, has been held in France after Interpol called for her arrest "for fraud and embezzlement".

Yoo, a photographer who once had an exhibition at the Louvre in Paris, was once jailed for fraud, has eluded capture in a case which has become an embarrassment for authorities already under pressure for their handling of the disaster.

Police and prosecutors twice raided the compound of a religious sect he co-founded, using earth movers to search for tunnels, but to no avail.

Authorities have offered a half-million-dollar reward for Yoo, the maximum allowed for an individual in a criminal case.

Lawyers for the 15 surviving crew of the Sewol, who face charges ranging from homicide to negligence, argued on Tuesday that it was up to the coastguard to rescue the passengers, not them.

[MuffyBee]

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2014/06/26/68/0302000000AEN20140626003600315F.html
No progress in search for 11 missing in ferry disaster
June 26, 2014

JINDO, South Korea, June 26 (Yonhap) -- Rescue workers continued their search for those still missing from April's ferry disaster early Thursday but failed to recover any body from the submerged hull, officials said.

A joint team of Navy, Coast Guard and civilian divers took turns to search the ship before dawn to locate the 11 people unaccounted for 72 days after the ferry sank off the country's southwestern coast, according to officials of the government crisis center.

The officials said the divers combed compartments in the stern of the third and fourth floors as well as the front of the fifth floor where the missing are presumed to be but failed to find anyone.

The official death toll stood at 293 as of Thursday morning.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/south-korea-ferry-disaster-owner-blamed-for-5-earlier-crashes-1.2691670
South Korea ferry disaster: owner blamed for 5 earlier crashes
Speculation that monopoly discouraged regulators from taking action over safety lapses
June 30, 2014

In the same narrow waterways where more than 300 people died this spring aboard the South Korean ferry Sewol, another ship owned by the same company crashed into an oil tanker 11 years earlier. The ferry's captain had chosen the difficult water path to cut a mere 11 kilometres from its journey.
It was among five crashes, from 2003 to 2011, that government investigators blamed mostly on sailors of Chonghaejin Marine Co. ferries. Three of the incidents occurred within a 12-month span, and after those occurred, a government investigator chided the company for failing to make safety reforms.

None of the crashes caused fatalities, but together, some experts say, they were reason enough for regulators to suspend or even revoke the company's licence. That never happened, and in fact Chonghaejin was allowed to expand by adding the Sewol to its fleet last year.

Chonghaejin's punishment for those five failures: two one-month suspensions for sailors, three verbal warnings to captains, one verbal warning to the company and a fine of 7.5 million won ($7,400 US). The biggest fine that can be issued in ferry-safety cases is just 30 million won ($29,400 US).

The Korean Maritime Safety Tribunal, an arm of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries that serves as a maritime court, recommended safety changes to the company as well, but they were nonbinding.
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