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The Sinking of the M.V. Sewol and the Confusion of Disasters

By Sean Lavery

When the South Korean passenger ferry sank, five years ago this month, it raised questions about authority and trust.

“Isn’t this the kind of situation when they tell you, ‘Stay put; it will be O.K.,’ and they run away for their lives?” A teen-age girl is talking with a group of friends, in footage that seems to be cell-phone video. The walls of the ferry they are riding, the M.V. Sewol, are leaning at a distressing angle. But the scene is surprisingly calm. No one is running or shouting—the group is patiently waiting for further instructions from the intercom, which has just told passengers to stay where they are. The girl in the video recalls a subway accident in which passengers were similarly told to stay put. “But only the people who didn’t follow the order survived.”

Disasters are marked by moments not only of chaos and terror but of indecision and confusion, as minds race to make choices with incomplete and disorienting information. When one is taking a routine ferry trip, the kind of crossing that occurs dozens of times a day without incident, and that ferry begins to tilt violently and sink into the sea, how do passengers decide what to do? A perfectly rational reaction, on first instinct, is to follow authority and believe that the crew, the captain, and those trusted with operating, commissioning, and regulating the ferry service will know the best course of action. But what happens when leadership breaks down? The above video, “In the Absence,” shows what happened inside the M.V. Sewol, the passenger ferry that sank while travelling between the South Korean city of Incheon and Jeju Island, on April 16, 2014.

During one of the first emergency calls from the M.V. Sewol, at 8:52 A.M. , an operator asks a passenger for the ship’s location. The passenger tells the operator that he does not, of course, know the exact location. It’s a large, sinking vessel in the middle of an open body of water—difficult to place but hard to miss. Minutes later, an announcement goes out over the intercom: “Please don’t move. Stay put,” a woman’s voice says. “And stand by.”

Just after 9:20 A.M. , a transportation official urges the captain to make a decision on whether to begin evacuation procedures. Reports would later show that the captain would wait another ten minutes to deliver the command to evacuate. Most survivors did not recall hearing any such command, and the absence of an orderly and structured escape plan multiplied the losses.

Nearly an hour after the first emergency calls, the captain jumped a railing, landed on a patrol boat, and abandoned ship. More than a hundred passengers were still sheltering in place onboard. A hundred and seventy-two passengers and crew survived the disaster; three hundred and four died in the sinking, most of them high-school students on a class trip.

How many could have been saved if the evacuation had taken place immediately, or if there had been clear procedures and a hierarchy of communication in place? What if the people onboard, instead of obeying misguided orders and waiting for instructions that never came, had decided to fend for themselves? South Korean law enforcement and the families and friends of the victims have grappled with these questions in the aftermath.

The captain and fourteen other members of the crew were convicted on charges related to the sinking. Yoo An-sil, the mother of Yu Mi-ji, one of the passengers who died in the sinking, describes a final phone conversation with her daughter with immense regret. “I told her to follow the teacher’s guidance,” she says. “I should have told her to escape quickly. But I didn’t know the situation.”

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By James Surowiecki

By Daniel Mendelsohn

By Rachel Aviv

South Korea ferry verdict: Sewol captain escapes death penalty

Captain Lee sentenced to 36 years in prison for abandoning ship but the victims' families say it is not enough

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The captain of the South Korean ferry that capsized in April has escaped the death penalty and has instead been sentenced to 36 years in jail for his role in the tragedy.

Lee Joon-seok was acquitted of murder but found guilty of gross negligence for abandoning passengers onboard the overloaded Sewol ferry. More than 300 people died in what was one of South Korea’s worst maritime disasters. The vast majority of the victims were school children.

Captain Lee and several of his crew members fled the ship after it capsized and were among the first to be rescued by the coast guard. They were accused of causing hundreds of unnecessary deaths by failing to issue evacuation orders and telling the children to stay in their cabins.

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The court said it could not conclude that the defendants "were aware that all of the victims would die because of their actions and they had an intention to kill them," therefore, "the murder charges are not accepted," The Times reports.

Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty and before the trial even started, President Park Geun-hye made a public statement condemning the crew's action, saying that their decision to abandon ship had been "tantamount to murder".

The sentence means that Lee, aged 69, is likely to spend the rest of life in jail for his role in the tragedy, the BBC 's Steve Evans reports. The 14 crew members were found guilty of various charges, including negligence and were sentenced to between five and 20 years in prison.

The victims’ families issued a statement saying that they were "devastated" by the verdict and that justice had failed, The Guardian reports. One mother shouted: "It's not fair. What about the lives of our children? They (the defendants) deserve worse than death."

Coinciding with the verdicts, authorities have officially called off the seven-month search for the missing bodies. Divers have retrieved 295 bodies from the ocean, but nine still remain unaccounted for.

South Korea ferry: students reveal horror of Sewol disaster

Survivors of South Korea's Sewol ferry disaster have begun testifying against the captain and crew. The passenger ferry capsized on 16 April, killing 304 of the 476 people on board. More than 300 passengers were Danwon High School pupils on an organised trip, but only 75 students survived. The captain, Lee Joon-Seok, and three senior crew members are accused of "homicide through wilful negligence", a charge that can carry the death penalty, reports The Guardian . Eleven other crew are being tried on lesser violations of maritime law.

The disaster also led to South Korea's biggest manhunt, in which authorities searched for Yoo Byung-un, the owner of the ferry company. His body, which was badly decomposed, was identified a few days ago after it was discovered by a farmer in an orchard last month. Investigators say the ferry was overloaded, having been illegally modified to carry more passengers and cargo. Six students, whose names were withheld to protect their privacy, have been giving evidence. Here is what the court has heard so far:

Passengers repeatedly told to stay put

One teenager said crew members had repeatedly told passengers – "specifically the students of Danwon High School" – to stay in their cabins. Prosecutors claim it was these instructions that partly led to more deaths. Despite the ferry listing heavily, with passengers thrown to one side, an internal tannoy told passengers to put on their life vests and stay put. One student said that she and her classmates obeyed the order until the ferry had listed so far that the door to their cabin was above their heads. Her classmates clambered up fixed furniture and then pulled others up as the water rose inside the cabin, she said.

No help from crew

One witness said that at no time did any crew help her or those with whom she escaped. The bulk of the charges against the crew arise from the fact that they chose to abandon ship while hundreds of people were still trapped inside. The members of crew who stayed to help passengers were among those who died. The crew members on trial, including the captain, have said they thought it was the coastguard's job to evacuate passengers. Students say even the coastguard officers failed to come aboard to try and rescue them but simply waited outside the ferry to fish passengers out of the water.

Classmates swept away

One student described watching a wave sweep her classmates back inside the sinking boat. She said that she and a group of students managed to move along a horizontal stairwell towards an escape hatch. But as she jumped out, water swept over their escape route. "There were many classmates in the corridor and most of them were swept back into the ship," she said.

South Korea ferry: 'impossible' to determine how owner died

The death of the billionaire businessman blamed for the South Korean ferry disaster remains a mystery after foresnic experts told the BBC that the cause of death was still "unknown".

The body of fugitive Yoo Byung-eun was discovered by South Korean officials in June but was only identified last week. He went on the run soon after the Sewol ferry sank off the coast of South Korea earlier this year, killing 304 passengers, most of whom were young students.

Yoo was the owner of the ferry operator Chonghaejin Marine Co and nationwide manhunt began after police said they wanted to question him his role in the tragedy.

It was revealed that he had "hidden in a cupboard at his holiday home to evade arrest" and his body was discovered in an orchard near his cabin. The remains were discovered on 12 June, but were only identified as Yoo last week.

"It was impossible to conclude the cause of death since Yoo's body was in a very advanced stage of decomposition," said Seo Joong-seok, director of South Korea's National Forensic Service (NFS).

The tragedy in April sparked national criticism of the government and allegations of corruption among top officials.

A government investigation into the incident concluded earlier this month that the ferry sank "due to negligence and corruption", the BBC reports.

The report cited "lax regulation, poor safety inspections and a slow and badly-coordinated coast guard response" as contributing factors.

Investigators claimed that the incident had been "man-made" and was a result of top level officials "prioritising profit over safety", The Independent reports.

The report found that the disaster could have been avoided if:

• The licensing of the ship had been properly regulated. The report revealed that the vessel was licensed based on fake documents.
• Less cargo had been onboard. Officials confirmed that the Sewol had been illegally modified and was carrying almost double its legal limit.
• Adequate safety checks had been performed by the Korean Register of Shipping.
• The coastguard had responded faster and issued better rescue guidelines.
• The captain had not delayed in issuing evacuation orders.

The trial of the ferry's captain, Lee Joon-seok, and members of his crew is currently ongoing. Lee is charged with manslaughter and the other crewmembers face charges ranging from negligence to homicide.

South Korea ferry: death toll hits 100 as salvage begins

THE death toll from last week’s sinking of the South Korean ferry Sewol has passed 100 as hope runs out for those still missing. Divers will keep searching for bodies for a further two days, after which salvage experts will raise the ship.

According to the BBC , there were 476 people on the ship, of whom 339 were children and teachers taking a pre-exam school trip to Jeju island. A total of 174 passengers and crew are known to be safe, while 104 bodies have been recovered.

The families of the remaining 198 have accepted that the chances of finding anyone alive five days after the accident are “practically nil”, says The Guardian . They have agreed to allow officials to abandon the labour-intensive and dangerous search for survivors by divers in favour of raising the ship using salvage equipment.

Woo Dong-suk, an uncle of one of the missing schoolchildren told the paper: “It’s been too long already. The bodies must be decayed. The parents’ only wish right now is to find them before they are badly decomposed.”

Divers will prioritise getting into the ship’s restaurant, where they believe many of the passengers were trapped, in the last days of searching. Meanwhile, an underwater robot has been taken to the scene. It will be used to help raise the ship.

The Sewol began to list at 8.58am local time on 16 April and, within two and a half hours, had completely capsized. It is still not known what caused the disaster: there were reports that witnesses heard an impact at the time but these have not been repeated or confirmed.

The Guardian says South Korean investigators are examining evidence that an inexperienced third mate executed a dangerously sharp turn just before the ferry started listing. The captain, Lee Joon-seok, was not on the bridge at the time.

Lee, 69, and six other crew members, have been detained by the authorities. The captain has been charged with negligence and failing to secure the safety of the passengers, says Sky News .

South Korean president Park Geun-hye has publicly accused Lee of “murderous acts”, in what some observers saw as an attempt to deflect attention from an inadequate response to the disaster by the authorities.

South Korea ferry captain: ‘I bow my head in apology’

The captain of the South Korean ferry that sank this week with 475 passengers on board says he delayed issuing evacuation orders because he feared passengers would "drift away".

Lee Joon-seok, described as an industry veteran by the ship's owners and an "expert" by others, was arrested with two crew members yesterday. He has faced growing criticism for not giving orders to evacuate quickly enough.

He told television reporters: "The current was very strong, the temperature of the ocean water was cold, and I thought that if people left the ferry without proper judgement, if they were not wearing a life jacket, and even if they were, they would drift away and face many other difficulties.”

He added: "I am sorry to the people of South Korea for causing a disturbance and I bow my head in apology to the families of the victims.”

As rescue operations continue for a fourth day, the number of missing stands at 273 with 29 confirmed dead. Some 174 passengers have been rescued.

Investigators are now concentrating on the sharp turn the ship took prior to its listing and probing whether an evacuation order could have saved more lives.

The 69-year-old captain faces charges including negligence of duty and violation of maritime law. The two crew members were arrested for failing in their duty to assist passengers.

South Korea ferry passengers 'told to stay put' as ship sank

NINE people have been confirmed dead and 300 are still missing as the search operation continues in the wake of the South Korean ferry disaster, which looks likely to be one of the worst maritime disasters for decades.

Officials say that the number of casualties could rise "drastically" over the next few days, with hundreds of people believed to be trapped inside the sunken vessel.

Emergency services said last night that they had managed to save just 164 of the 470 people on board.

Survivors who were taken to the nearby island of Jindo said that crew members gave conflicting instructions as the Sewol ferry began to list violently and then sink, The Times reports.

"It was fine, then the ship went 'boom', and there was a noise of cargo falling," one passenger, Cha Eun-ok, told reporters. "The on-board announcement told people to stay put [but] people who stayed are trapped," she said.

Urgent rescue efforts are ongoing with 40 coastguard and military vessels and a team of specialist navy divers operating in the choppy waters about 20 km (12 miles) off the country's southwestern coast. But the operation has been hampered by poor weather.

Meanwhile, frustration has grown among families of the victims, as police refused to let a group of 30 civilian divers take part in the search for any survivors who may still be trapped in the sunken ferry.

The cause of the disaster was not immediately clear. The state broadcaster YTN reported that strong winds had caused cargo on top of the ship to move. The ship then began to list as passengers were instructed to put on their life jackets.

The search effort continues but many rescuers do not hold out much hope of finding any more survivors.

"Considering the water temperature, depth and the time elapsed, anyone trapped inside is unlikely to have survived," a rescue worker told local media.

Hundreds missing as South Korean ferry capsizes

TWO people are dead and almost 300 are missing after a ferry carrying 476 people capsized off the coast of South Korea.

The ferry sank between the port of Incheon, in the north-west of the country, and the southern resort island of Jeju. Among the passengers were 300 school students.

A major rescue operation is underway including dozens of coastguard and navy vessels and 18 helicopters. It was reported that 368 people had been rescued, but the BBC explains that after "a counting error" the number was halved to 180, leaving almost 300 people unaccounted for.

The two people have been confirmed dead are said to be a female crew member in her twenties, and a man who died in hospital.

The Sewol, a car and passenger ferry, sounded its distress signal shortly before 9am local time after it collided with rocks and began listing dangerously. Ferries had been cancelled overnight due to heavy fog, but locals reported that visibility had been fair by the time the Sewol set sail.

Passengers said that the ship had struck rocks 12 miles from the island of Byungpoong.

"We heard a big thumping sound and the boat stopped," one passenger told South Korean TV network YTN . "The boat is tilting and we have to hold on to something to stay seated."

One rescued student, Lim Hyung Min, told YTN that he heard a loud thump, and then the ferry began to sink. Everyone was ordered to put on their life jackets and jump overboard, he said. "I had to swim a bit to get to the boat to be rescued... The water was so cold and I wanted to live."

YTN reported that all the students have now been rescued, but the South Korean coast guard has yet to confirm those accounts.

Images shown on South Korean television showed the ship at a 45 degree angle. Later, the ship appeared to have overturned and was almost completely submerged.

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South Korean ferry Sewol: Captain who escaped says he is ‘deeply ashamed’ while facing probe

THE captain who fled stricken ferry Sewol as passengers died speaks out, while prosecutors claim he was not in command when disaster struck.

Shock as nation’s PM ‘punched’ by man

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AS the search for survivors of South Korea’s ferry disaster continues, police are investigating the captain, who abandoned his sinking ship.

Captain Lee Joon-Seok, 69, faces a criminal investigation, coastguard officials say, amid unconfirmed reports that he was one of the first to jump to safety from the stricken vessel Sewol.

Prosecutors today declared Lee was not in command of the boat when disaster struck

“It was the third officer who was in command of steering the ship when the accident took place,” state prosecutor Park Jae-Eok told a press briefing.

It is still not clear what caused the ship to sink — with Lee insisting it did not run aground.

Surrounded by TV cameras and reporters as he waited in the coastguard’s southern headquarters in Mokpo, Lee pulled a hood over his head and face and mumbled incoherently in response to persistent questions to explain what happened.

He insisted it had not run aground.

“It didn’t hit any rocks,” he told the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper.

“The ship just sank suddenly. I don’t know a clear reason,” he said.

FINAL DESPERATE CALLS: ‘Mum, I love you’

“I am really sorry, I am deeply ashamed,” he said.

While it is not clear why the captain was not in command of the vessel, comparisons are being made to the Costa Concordia disaster.

The captain is also being accused of delaying the evacuation process for 30 minutes.

A crew member has since claimed an immediate evacuation order was not issued because officers on the bridge were trying to stabilise the vessel after it started to list amid confusion and chaos.

Oh Yong-Seok, 58, said he wasn’t sure if the captain’s order, given to crew members, was actually relayed to passengers on the public address system. Several survivors also said they did not hear an evacuation order.

FERRY RESCUE MISSION CONTINUES

The police probe comes as Korean divers renewed efforts today to access a capsized ferry in which hundreds of schoolchildren are feared trapped, as the grief and frustration of anguished parents gave way to anger and recrimination.

Worsening weather fuelled the sombre mood, with persistent rain and choppy seas further hindering dive teams already struggling with low visibility and strong currents.

The confirmed death toll rose overnight to 25, but the focus of concern remained the 271 people still unaccounted for 48 hours after the ferry capsized and sank Wednesday morning.

A female crew member, at least five students and two teachers, were confirmed dead in the South Korea ferry disaster by coast guard officials overnight.

But the toll was expected to jump amid fears that many high school students were dead.

It is not clear why more bodies have not been found, but the implication is many are trapped inside the wreck.

The multi-deck vessel with 475 on board — many of them students on a trip — suddenly listed, capsized then sank within the space of 90 minutes.

“Honestly, I think the chances of finding anyone alive are close to zero,” a coastguard official said.

The coastguard said more than 500 divers, 169 vessels and 29 aircraft were involved in the rescue operation.

Navy and coast guard divers have tried to enter the capsized ferry Sewol more than 10 times but are battling poor underwater visibility and strong currents.

Oxygen has been pumped into the hull of the vessel in an effort to assist those who may still be alive in air pockets.

FAMILIES ACCUSE GOVERNMENT OF LIES

Distraught relatives, gathered in a gymnasium on nearby Jindo island, insisted more should be done and vented their frustration when President Park Geun-Hye came to inspect the rescue effort.

In an appeal broadcast live on television, a self-appointed spokesman for the relatives accused the authorities of indifference and deception.

“The government lied yesterday,” he said, speaking at a podium in the gymnasium where hundreds of relatives have been sleeping on the floor since the tragedy unfolded.

Disputing the official figures of hundreds of divers, vessels and aircraft being deployed, he said he and other relatives had visited the rescue site and seen only a dozen ships and helicopters.

“Everyone, is this the reality of South Korea? We plead once more, please save our children,” he said.

A large monitor offering a live feed from four cameras at the rescue site was brought into the gymnasium overnight, but initial interest in the fog-disrupted images soon faded.

“What are you doing when people are dying! Time is running out!” one woman screamed as Park tried to address the volatile crowd with her security detail standing by nervously.

When South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-Won visited the gym earlier in the day, he was jostled and shouted at, and water bottles were thrown.

“Don’t run away, Mr. Prime Minister!” one mother said, blocking Chung as he tried to leave. “Please tell us what you’re planning to do.”

‘DENIED A CHANCE TO ESCAPE’

Distressing mobile phone footage taken by one survivor has emerged, showing the panic on board with one woman desperately screaming: “The water’s coming, the water’s coming!”

There was growing public anger over multiple survivor testimony that passengers had been ordered to stay in their seats and cabins when the ferry first foundered.

“We must have waited 30 to 40 minutes after the crew told us to stay put,” said one rescued student.

“Then everything tilted over and everyone started screaming and scrambling to get out,” he said.

Rescuers said they feared hundreds had been unable to escape the vessel because of the speed with which it turned over.

Regional coastguard commander Kim Soo-Hyun told a press briefing that “investigations were underway” into reports that the captain and crew were among the first to leave the stricken vessel.

As the hunt for survivors continues, passengers have claimed they were denied a proper chance to escape.

National shock at the incident that may have claimed the lives of hundreds of South Korean schoolchildren was mixed with fury, as more passengers gave eyewitness accounts of what happened on board before the vessel began to sink.

Survivors highlighted the fact that passengers were repeatedly told to stay in their seats or cabins when the ferry first ran into trouble.

Those who obeyed found their possible escape route severely compromised after the vessel suddenly listed sharply to the port side, triggering total panic.

One survivor named Kim Sung-Mook said he had struggled to rescue around 30 high school students unable to escape from a large, open hall on the fourth level of the ship.

“I couldn’t even get into the hall because the whole thing was leaning over so badly,” Kim said.

“The ship was going underwater and there was nothing for them to hold on to with their hands. They couldn’t crawl up the floor, because it was wet and at such a sharp angle,” he said.

MORE PICTURES: The sinking Sewol ferry

Using a fire hose he managed to pull a few to safety, “but there were so many of them ... I couldn’t help them all.”

One student who was rescued said most passengers had remained in their seat for “30 to 40 minutes” after the ferry first foundered, in line with instructions they received from crew members and over the internal tannoy system.

“The message was repeated again and again: ‘Stay put. Don’t move’,” said another survivor Huh Young-Ki.

“We were asking ourselves: ‘Shouldn’t we move? Shouldn’t we try and get out?’ But the announcement was saying help would be there in 10 minutes,” Huh told the News Y television channel.

Discipline is strict in the South Korean education system and authority rarely flouted, leaving observers to conclude that most of the 375 high school students on the ferry, in their late teens, would have probably obeyed any official commands without question.

“If only we had been told to get out earlier, then more of us would have been able to jump into the sea,” one student who managed to escape told the MBC TV channel.

“But most people just stayed put as they were told,” she added.

Once the 6825-tonne vessel Sewol had begun to list, it soon ended up at a 90 degree angle to the water, before inverting completely and sinking with only a small section of the keel showing above water.

The suggestion that many more should have been able to escape has added to the anguish of the relatives of the missing, and fuelled public anger in a country unused to a disaster of this scale, especially involving its efficient, modern transport infrastructure.

Most South Koreans believe they have left the sort of accidents that regularly blight developing countries behind.

With the exception of a subway station fire in 2003 that claimed 192 lives, there have been no large-scale disasters in the past nearly two decades.

A Seoul department store collapsed in 1995, killing more than 500 people, while nearly 300 people died when a ferry capsized off the west coast in 1993.

One 61-year-old woman escaped after ignoring the advice to stay in her cabin which she said was still being relayed as it filled with water.

“I swam for a while and then managed to crawl to an upper deck and then to a window where other people were clinging on,” she told reporters in a hospital where she was recovering.

“One man was slamming on the window screaming for help, and then a rescue boat came up and they smashed the window in and pulled us out,” she said.

Jin Kyo-Joong, the former chief of the South Korean Navy’s ship salvage unit, said there were emergency situations where keeping passengers from moving was crucial.

“But if the ship is listing so dramatically to the point where people can’t even move around, then ordering them to stay put is obviously the wrong order,” Jin told the YTN television channel.

Meanwhile, naval and coastguard vessels used floodlights and flares to keep the search operation going through the night, but strong currents and low visibility hampered diving teams’ efforts to access the vessel in the hope of finding survivors trapped in air pockets.

Only two out of 500 divers are now doing rescue effort because of the bad weather.

Two salvage cranes are on their way to the scene to try to raise the capsized vessel, government minister Kang Byung-kyu has said.

However, the first was not due to arrive until Friday morning.

US warship the USS Bonhomme Richard is on standby in the area.

Commanding officer Capt Joey Tynch told the BBC that poor visibility was hampering the rescue effort.

“We found ourselves in challenging weather conditions today,” he said.

“Very low cloud ceilings and reduced visibility and rain and we’re working a search area around the site in close co-ordination with the South Korean on-scene commander.”

The Sewol , which travels twice a week between Incheon and Jeju, is a 146-metre vessel that can hold more than 900 people.

It set sail on Tuesday from Incheon, in north-western South Korea, on an overnight, 14-hour journey to the tourist island of Jeju.

About 9am on Wednesday local time, when it was three hours from Jeju, the ferry sent a distress call after it began listing to one side, according to the Ministry of Security and Public Administration.

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Denmark’s Prime Minister was reportedly “shocked” following an attack on her in the streets of Copenhagen.

A group of Taiwanese nationals were assaulted in Brisbane in a suspected racially motivated attack caught on video.

The World Health Organisation has confirmed Australia’s first case of bird flu is linked to a child that had travelled to India.

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Korean disaster twists tradition of captain going down with ship

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Ever since the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage, carrying its captain and many of the passengers with it, the notion that the captain goes down with his ship has been ingrained in popular culture.

But for the second time in just over two years, a sea captain — first in Italy and now in South Korea — has been among the first to flee a sinking vessel, placing his life ahead of those of his terrified passengers.

A much-publicized photo from the latest accident shows the Korean captain being helped off his ship, the Sewol, stepping off the deck to safety even as scores of his ferry passengers remained below, where, survivors believe, they became trapped by rushing water and debris.

The behavior has earned the captain, Lee Joon-seok, 68, the nickname the “evil of the Sewol” among bloggers in South Korea. It also landed him in jail.

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Maritime experts called the abandonment shocking, violating a proud international (and South Korean) tradition of stewardship, based at least as much on accepted codes of behavior as by law.

“That guy’s an embarrassment to anybody who’s ever had command at sea,” said John Padgett III, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral and former submarine captain.

Padgett’s sentiments were echoed by Capt. William Doherty, who has commanded U.S. Navy and merchant ships and managed safety operations at a major cruise line. He called Lee’s decision to leave his passengers “a disgrace” and likened it to the desertion of the stricken Costa Concordia cruise ship off the Italian coast in 2012.

“You can’t take responsibility, or say you do, for nearly 500 souls, and then be the first in the lifeboat,” Doherty said.

Legal test looms

Civil courts in the United States have long viewed captains as having an obligation to protect their passengers and ships, but the cases in South Korea and Italy seem likely to test the notion of criminal liability in disasters.

The captain of the Italian ship, Francesco Schettino, is on trial on manslaughter charges after the sinking of his ship left more than 30 people dead.

The death toll in the South Korean accident, in which bodies are still being recovered, could end up topping 300.

Most countries do not explicitly state that a captain must be the last person to leave a distressed ship, experts say, giving captains the leeway to board lifeboats or nearby ships if they can better command an evacuation from there.

South Korea’s law, however, appears to be explicit, allowing authorities to arrest Lee for abandoning the boat and its passengers in a time of crisis.

An international maritime treaty known as the Safety of Life at Sea — adopted in 1914 after the Titanic disaster — makes a ship’s captain responsible for the safety of his vessel and everyone on board. A later version of the treaty said passengers should be able to evacuate within 30 minutes of a general alarm.

The Sewol, with 476 people aboard, took 2½ hours to sink, but many survivors have reported the crew told passengers it was safer to stay put inside the ship, likely dooming them. The captain says he later issued instructions for passengers to evacuate the ship, but it remains unclear if that was conveyed to passengers.

The U.S. Navy’s rules are more explicit than ones for commercial ships. Dave Werner, Naval History and Heritage Command spokesman, said Navy rules dating to 1814 require a captain to remain with a stricken ship as long as possible and salvage as much of it as he can.

Werner cited current regulations that state: “If it becomes necessary to abandon the ship, the commanding officer should be the last person to leave.”

Long history

The list of military and commercial ship captains who refused to abandon ship is a long one.

The Titanic’s captain, E.J. Smith, was probably steaming too fast when the giant ship hit an iceberg, but he later won praise for helping to save more than 700 lives. He insisted that women and children be evacuated first, and he stayed near the bridge as the ship went down.

After the Andrea Doria collided with another vessel off Nantucket, Mass., in 1956, the captain, Piero Calamai, pledged to remain on his own on the listing ship after the passengers were evacuated to try to save it. He agreed to abandon the vessel only when other officers refused to leave without him.

When the Navy’s first Cold War spy submarine, the Cochino, caught fire and was about to sink in the Barents Sea not far from Russia in 1949, the captain, Cmdr. Rafael Benitez, refused to abandon the surfaced submarine even after all his men had run across a wooden plank connecting them to another vessel heaving in the rough seas. Benitez, who was hoping to save the Cochino, crossed the plank to safety only when the men on the other vessel yelled that his sub was sinking fast.

This sense of a captain’s duty was also part of the narrative in the 2009 crash of US Airways Flight 1549, which was forced to ditch in the Hudson River after losing power in both engines after it struck birds. After landing the plane on the water, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger twice checked the sinking cabin to make sure no one was left before leaving himself.

Sometimes the heroes are fellow passengers.

In 1991, a 500-foot-long Greek-owned cruise ship, the Oceanos, flooded off the coast of South Africa in 30-foot swells after an engine explosion. Instead of evacuating the 571 people on board, the captain and his crew left, claiming later they went to seek help.

According to news reports at the time, the ship’s entertainers and the cruise director coordinated the rescue effort from the bridge and were among the last to leave the ship, along with members of the South African Navy, who were dropped aboard to search for any stragglers.

Everyone survived.

Heroic acts

The Sewol had its heroes and heroines.

One, Park Ho-jin, 16, found a 6-year-old girl standing alone and wet on the side of the ship as it was sliding slowly into the water. She had been left there by her older brother who went back into the ship to hunt for their mother. Park swept the child into his arms and delivered her to rescuers who had pulled a boat alongside the ship.

Park made it onto a later rescue boat.

Another high-school student who survived reported that a crew member named Park Ji-young, 22, had helped teenagers get life jackets and escape by urging them to jump into the frigid waters of the Yellow Sea, where rescue boats were waiting.

She stayed behind without a life jacket for herself despite the youngsters’ entreaties to jump with them. “After saving you, I will get out,” she said. “The crew goes out last.”

She was later found dead, floating in the sea.

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Why did the South Korean ferry sink? Transcript revealed

Authorities release the transcript of conversation between harbour and ferry officials – but how much do we really know what happened to South Korean ferry Sewol?

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Investigations into the disaster, South Korea’s worst maritime accident in 21 years , have focused on possible crew negligence, problems with cargo stowage and structural defects of the vessel. Although the ship appears to have passed all of its safety and insurance checks.

The ship’s 69-year-old captain also came under scrutiny after witnesses said he was among the first to escape the sinking vessel.

‘Junior officer’

According to investigators, captain Lee Joon-seok was not on the bridge at the time the Sewol started to list sharply , with a junior officer at the wheel.

Prosecutors on Friday issued arrest warrants for Mr Joon-seok , the officer at the wheel and one other crew member for failing in their duty to aid passengers.

“I’m not sure where the captain was before the accident. However, right after the accident, I saw him rushing back into the steering house ahead of me,” said Oh Young-seok, one of the helmsmen on the ship who was off duty and resting at the time.

Koreans don’t have the view that they have to stay with their ship until the end – Maritime author

“He calmly asked by how much the ship was tilted, and tried to re-balance the ship,” said Mr Young-seok, who was speaking from a hospital bed in the city of Mokpo on Friday, where the injured have been taken.

Handing over the helm is normal practice on the voyage from Incheon to Jeju, which usually takes 13.5 hours, according to local shipping crew.

‘Rocks and reefs’

The ferry went down in calm conditions and was following a frequently travelled route in familiar waters. Although relatively close to shore, the area was free of rocks and reefs. Mr Mr Joon-seok has not commented on when he left the ship, although he has apologised for the loss of life.

He was described as an industry veteran by the officials from Chonghaejin Marine Co Ltd, the ship owner, and others who had met him described him as an “expert”.

“I don’t know why he abandoned the ship like that,” said Ju Hi-chun, a maritime author who interviewed the captain in 2006 as one of the experts on the route to Jeju island.

But he added: “Koreans don’t have the view that they have to stay with their ship until the end. It is a different culture from the west.”

‘Sharp turn’

Some media reports have said the vessel turned sharply, causing cargo to shift and the ship to list before capsizing.

Marine investigators and the coastguard have said it was too early to pinpoint a cause for the accident and declined to comment on the possibility of the cargo shifting.

The captain is also said to have delayed evacuation for half an hour after a South Korean transportation official ordered preparations to abandon ship, according to a transcript of the ship-to-shore exchange (above) and interviews with a crew member.

It raised more questions about whether quick action could have saved scores of passengers still missing and feared dead.

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Yes, It’s Illegal for a Captain to Abandon Ship in South Korea

A s the death toll rises from the sinking of South Korea’s Sewol ferry, which left 300 dead or missing , blame has been placed on the captain accused of abandoning ship as his passengers were left to die below — reportedly told by the crew to stay put inside the boat.

Captain Lee Joon-seok’s actions have not only been derided as the “evil of Sewol ” by the public and “akin to murder” by the country’s President , but they also led to his arrest on suspicions of negligence and abandonment . Crew members are facing charges as well . This has led to a widespread discussion as to whether a civilian captain abandoning his ship is not just a cowardly act but also a criminal one .

In spite of a historic precedence of valor — the Titanic ’s captain is an iconic example of honorably going down with the ship — there aren’t international laws that require a captain to remain on board . “There is nothing in any [international maritime agreement] to specifically require a captain to stay on board the vessel in the event of an incident such as this, however he or she does retain full responsibility for the safety of the vessel and those on board,” International Maritime Organization spokesman Lee Adamson told ABC News.

But according to Rod Sullivan, a professor specializing in maritime law at Florida Coastal School of Law, these laws do exist on a country-by-country basis — and South Korea is an exception to the general rule.

“Specifically under Article 10 of the Korean Seaman’s Act, it makes it a crime to go ahead and depart the vessels ahead of the passengers,” Sullivan, who has also taught in South Korea, tells TIME. “I know of no other country besides South Korea that has this specific provision requiring the captain to stay on board. There is no counterpart in U.S. law or an international law that would apply.”

Violating Article 10 would result in a maximum fine of $5,000. But Lee, the Sewol captain, stands accused of far greater crimes, under various maritime laws that are applicable both in South Korea and internationally. Sullivan tells TIME that Article 11 of Korea’s Seaman’s Act mandates the “captain has a duty to take all necessary measures to save the lives” of those aboard a ship, and breaches of these duties could lead to a maximum of five years in prison.

“Clearly there was a major mistake on behalf of the captain,” Sullivan says. “I think that the thing up for question is whether this constitutes negligent homicide or manslaughter. If it was gross negligence or negligence it could be up to a life imprisonment.”

There are comparable laws in the U.S. and internationally. U.S. Code Title 46 Section 2303 lays out a captain’s duties relating to marine casualties and assistance, which amounts to getting everyone on board out of danger to the best of the captain’s abilities, or face a $1,000 fine and/or up to two years in jail. Lee apparently failed one of the first tests of being a captain, the way some sailors see it. “That guy’s an embarrassment to anybody who’s ever had command at sea,” John Padgett, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral and former submarine captain, told the New York Times.

Sullivan says his gut reaction would be similarly negative, but he wonders if he might feel different six months from now. While both Joseph Hazelwood, captain of Exxon Valdez , and John Lerro, captain in the Sunshine Skyway Bridge disaster that killed 35, faced public scrutiny for their role in deadly accidents, Hazelwood was acquitted of all felony charges (he was convicted of misdemeanor negligence) and Lerro was cleared of all wrongdoing by the Coast Guard and a grand jury .

“The lesson to be learned here is that in times when we are passionate about ship collisions, we tend to think everything that is done wrong is a crime,” Sullivan says. “But with the passage of time and before a neutral decision make like a judge and jury [is involved], more often than not they are not criminal convictions.”

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South Korea ferry disaster: Video shows captain escaping sinking ship

HONG KONG (AFP) - South Korea's coastguard on Monday released a video showing the captain of a sinking ferry scrambling to safety as hundreds remained trapped inside - a move expected to intensify criticism of the crew over the disaster.

The 10-minute video - taken by rescue officials and aired on the YTN news channel - shows 69-year-old captain Lee Joon Seok, wearing a sweater and underpants, hastily escaping from the bridge of the tilting ship before it sank on April 16.

All 15 of the surviving crew responsible for sailing the huge ferry are in custody, facing charges including negligence and abandoning passengers.

Victims' families have bitterly criticised the official response to the disaster, saying delays in accessing the submerged ship may have robbed any survivors of their last chance to make it out alive.

The video attracted caustic online comment. "Look at the captain running out of the ship without his pants on. How pathetic. Can't believe he didn't think about all the children trapped there while he rushed so quickly to save his own life," said one user.

Prosecutors on Monday carried out a series of raids, including on a coastguard office, as part of their widening investigation into the disaster that left 300 dead or missing.

Divers trying to search the wreck of the upturned Sewol, which capsized with 476 people on board, were frustrated for a third straight day by atrocious weather and dangerous conditions. Despite more than 60 hours of operations since Friday by divers trying to penetrate the flooded interior, only two more bodies have been recovered and 113 are still unaccounted for.

The confirmed death toll from one of the country's worst ever maritime disasters stood on Monday at 189. Most of the missing and dead were high school students.

Strong currents have also worsened fears that bodies could drift free and be scattered. Nets have been thrown up in seas around the ferry, but no finds have yet been reported.

Mr Park Seung Gi, a spokesman for the government's Joint Task Force which is coordinating actions, vowed on Monday to redouble efforts to prevent bodies getting lost at sea. Special teams have been set up to search underwater around the sunken vessel, as well on the sea surface, nearby islands and shores, he said.

Another official said China and Japan would be asked to contact South Korea if they find any unidentified bodies on their shores. In deeply Confucian South Korea, the proper burial of bodies - often in the deceased person's home town - is considered a way to show respect for the dead and to allow their soul to rest in peace.

South Korea remains in a state of national mourning, as furious relatives and the public at large cast around for someone to blame for one of the country's worst maritime accidents.

The video released on Monday showed the open decks of the ship nearly empty, as crew repeatedly instructed passengers to stay in their cabins until it became impossible for them to evacuate because the ship was tilting too much.

The delay in the crucial final hours - when most crew members fled the ferry - sparked outrage that many lives could have been saved if passengers had received timely instructions.

Prime Minister Chung Hong Won tendered his resignation on Sunday, admitting he had not been up to the task of overseeing the official response. He was told by President Park Geun Hye to stay in his post until the recovery has finished.

The probe into the sinking has expanded from the ferry operator, Chonghaejin Marine, and its affiliates, to state ship safety inspectors and even sea traffic controllers amid fury over lax safety oversight and delayed rescue efforts.

On Monday, prosecutors raided the coastguard office in the southern port of Mokpo to probe allegations that it had failed to respond quickly enough to a passenger's emergency call. The office received the call - reportedly from a teenage boy - a few minutes before the ship sent its first distress signal to sea traffic controllers. During his call, the boy was bombarded with questions about the ferry's coordinates and the number of people on board.

A coastguard official later told reporters they had mistaken him for a crew member after he was transferred from another emergency call centre. That centre in the southern province of South Jeolla is also being investigated for signs of negligence.

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South Korea ferry disaster: students testify in captain's murder trial

Student survivors of South Korea's Sewol ferry disaster, testifying in the murder trial of the captain and crew, recalled being repeatedly told to stay put as the ship was sinking.

"They kept saying the same thing over and over," one said, describing how she and classmates obeyed the order until the ferry had listed so far that the door to their cabin was above their heads.

Another described watching a wave sweep her classmates back inside the sinking boat.

The trial is taking place in the southern city of Gwangju, but the judges and lawyers decamped to a court in Ansan city, south of Seoul, for a special two-day session with the 17 students who agreed to testify.

Police cordons blocked public access to the district court as the students – all from Ansan's Dawon high school – arrived in a red minibus and were escorted into the building by a tight phalanx of police officers.

Although they were offered the option of testifying by video from a nearby room, five of the six female students involved in Monday's morning session chose to give their testimony in the courtroom.

The student who took the video option described how passengers suddenly slid to one side as the ferry listed heavily.

"The internal tannoy announcement said we should put our life vest on and stay put," she was quoted as saying by a pool reporter in the court, adding that the message was given repeatedly.

The 6,825-tonne Sewol passenger ferry capsized on 16 April off South Korea's southern coast. Of the 476 people on board, 325 were Dawon high school pupils on an organised outing. Only 75 students survived.

The female student said they had obeyed the order not to move until water started coming through the window of their cabin which, by now, was under their feet.

"The door was above our heads. We had our lifejackets on and the president of our class suggested we wait until we could float upwards and then escape," she said.

Eventually some classmates managed to clamber up fixed furniture. They pulled the others up and out as the waters inside rose.

Another witness, who testified in the courtroom, said at no time was she or those who escaped with her helped by any crew.

As the ferry keeled over to one side, she said a group of students managed to move along a now horizontal stairwell towards an escape hatch.

At the moment she jumped out, a sea swell swept over their escape route.

"There were many classmates in the corridor and most of them were swept back into the ship," she recalled.

The tragedy, and in particular the loss of so many young lives, rocked South Korea. In the days immediately after the disaster, TV stations broadcast wrenching mobile phone footage taken by one student victim of himself and his classmates laughing and joking about being in the Titanic movie as the ferry begins to list.

As the situation worsens, the students begin to panic, even as the ship tannoy can be heard advising them to stay put.

Sewol captain Lee Joon-Seok and three senior crew members are accused of "homicide through wilful negligence" – a charge that can carry the death penalty.

Eleven other crew are being tried on lesser violations of maritime law.

The bulk of the charges against the crew arise from the fact that Lee and the others chose to abandon ship while hundreds of people were still trapped inside the heavily listing vessel before it capsized. The final death toll was just over 300.

The crew were also condemned for ordering the passengers to remain where they were when the ship began listing. A handful of crew members who stayed and tried to guide passengers to safety were among those who died.

Lee and his crew were publicly vilified in the wake of the tragedy, and there have concerns about the possibility of a fair trial with emotions still running high.

• South Korea ferry disaster
• South Korea
• Asia Pacific

More on this story

Court to rule on death penalty for South Korean ferry captain

South Korea ferry verdict: Sewol captain sentenced to 36 years in prison

South Korea ferry disaster victims' families call for death penalty for crew – video

South Korea ferry: angry relatives confront minister and coast guard chief

South Korea ferry captain jailed for 36 years – video

South Korea ferry disaster: prosecutors seek death penalty for captain

South Korea ferry passengers recall moments of bravery from crew

The South Korea ferry disaster is truly awful, but it is not murder

South Korean ferry disaster: captain says sorry for abandoning passengers

South Korea ferry disaster: inexperienced sailor was at helm

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South Korean teens tell how they were left to escape sinking ferry

By Ju-min Park ANSAN South Korea (Reuters) - Six teenagers who survived South Korea's worst maritime disaster in 44 years told on Monday how classmates helped them float free as water flooded their cabins despite crew instructions to stay put even as their ferry sank, killing more than 300 people. The teenagers, whose names were withheld to protect their privacy, were giving testimony at the trial of 15 crew members, who face charges ranging from homicide to negligence for abandoning the sinking ship. "We were waiting and, when the water started coming in, the class rep told everyone to put on the life vests ... the door was above our heads, so she said we'll float and go through the door and that's how we came out," one of the teenagers said. "Other kids who got out before us pulled us out." The ferry Sewol sank on April 16, killing 304 people, as many as 250 of them school children on a field trip. Twelve of their teachers were also killed. The ferry was on a routine trip from the port of Incheon south to Jeju island, carrying students and teachers from the Danwon High School on the outskirts of Seoul as well as other passengers and cargo. Another of the teenagers told how crew members had told passengers, "specifically the students of Danwon High School", to stay in their cabins. "Water started to fill in and friends helped us move out," the student said. Others described how coastguard officers waited outside the stricken ferry for passengers to swim out rather than go into the ship to try and rescue them. "They were outside. They pulled us (onto boats) but they didn't come inside to help," one said. "We said to ourselves, 'why aren't they coming in?'." "MORE FISHERMEN THAN RESCUERS" Another student said it appeared there were more fishermen involved in the rescue than coastguard. Like others, she said the crew should be punished severely for their actions. "More than that, I want to know the fundamental reason why my friends had to end up like that," she said. The six teenage survivors described how there were repeated orders not to move from their cabins. Orders to put on their life vests came much later and without any information about what was happening to the ship as it began to list sharply. They were the first of 75 children who survived due to give evidence in the trial at the Gwangju court, which has been moved to Ansan south of Seoul to accommodate the students. Five of them gave their evidence facing away from the court. One testified from another room via closed-circuit television. The crew members on trial, including the captain, Lee Joon-seok, have said they thought it was the coastguard's job to evacuate passengers. Video footage of their escape triggered outrage across South Korea. Two musicians from the Philippines who had been working on the ship testified that the crew appeared to be in a state of panic as they gathered on the ship's bridge as it started to list, making no effort to get passengers off the vessel. "I remember them panicked and worried," one of the pair, who was identified only by her first name, Alex, told the court. She said the captain was crouched and holding onto a metal bar, apparently shaking with fear, and a junior ship's officer at the helm when the vessel started to list was crying loudly. The government of President Park Geun-hye was heavily criticised over the slow and ineffective handling of the rescue operation. Park has vowed to break up the coastguard and streamline rescue operations, which are now split between the police, coastguard and others, into a single national agency. The disaster also sparked South Korea's biggest manhunt as authorities searched for Yoo Byung-un, the man at the head of a family business that operated the doomed ferry. Yoo's badly decomposed body was identified last week after it was found by a farmer at an orchard last month. Earlier on Monday, a close associate of Yoo, a woman identified by police only by her last name of Kim, was arrested after handing herself in. It was believed she helped him elude police after the disaster. Another woman, the wife of Yoo's driver who was thought to have been with him during his final days at large, also turned herself in to police. Kim's arrest came three days after police stormed an apartment on the outskirts of Seoul and found Yoo's elder son, Dae-gyun, who was wanted for embezzlement. Yoo Dae-gyun was not believed to have been as actively involved in management of the family business as his younger brother, who is believed to be in the United States. He said he only learned of his father's death from police. Extensive decomposition of Yoo Byung-un's body meant it was not possible to determine the cause of his death despite forensic and DNA tests, authorities said last week. (Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Paul Tait and Robert Birsel)

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Passenger who jumped from world’s largest cruise ship fell 90 feet to his death: staffer

T he passenger who jumped from the world’s largest cruise ship on Sunday fell a staggering 90 feet to his death, sources said – and staff on board knew exactly what had happened practically before he hit the water.

The man, who has not been identified, jumped from the running track on the fifth level of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas on the first day of its week-long voyage, a security team member told The Post when the ship returned to Miami Saturday morning.

Each deck is about 20 feet high, so the man fell from approximately 90 feet, the staffer explained.

The man’s body was transported via van to the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office, according to crew members.

Cops also met the ship and took statements at the docks, and they retrieved a copy of the surveillance footage of the fatal incident.

When the man jumped on May 26, the overboard detection system was activated almost immediately – prompting onboard staff into action, the security team member continued.

“We knew what had happened literally seconds after he hit the water. The protocol is that we’re supposed to immediately make visual contact to see if we can spot him,” the source said, noting that one guard also saw the man jump on a security camera feed .

“It’s the captain’s call whether to stop and turn around, and he did,” he added.

Once the alert was sounded, the ship’s specialized security team prepared to take a rescue boat out to pick up the man.

The rest of the security team was stationed at predetermined lookout spots to do a 360-degree scan of the surrounding waters, while the Coast Guard was also briefed and immediately sent out an aircraft to the site, according to the crew member, who asked not to be named.

While the potential rescue got underway, the Icon of the Seas’ medical team was put on high alert.

The ship had paramedics, nurses, former ER doctors, and even a surgeon on board – as well as all the lifesaving medical equipment one typically finds in a small hospital, a member of the ship’s medical team told The Post.

The man was likely not alive when he was recovered from the water , the source added.

The doctor on board pronounced him dead once his body was transported to the medical bay, according to the crew member.

The passenger’s body was then stored in the on-board morgue, which is equipped with eight drawers.

There were no other fatalities on-board during the week-long voyage, which stopped in Honduras, Mexico and the Bahams, the medical team member said.

An onboard care team assisted the man’s family in the days after the incident, they explained to The Post.

The loved ones had the option of staying on the ship or flying home – though most bereaved families opt to stay with their relative’s body, the source noted.

The other passengers disembarking the massive ship – which holds up to 7,600 guests and 2,350 crew members – said they mostly went about their business for the rest of the cruise, though there was a prayer circle in the man’s honor.

“I didn’t know him but I felt horrible about it,” says Janine Pernell, a passenger from Atlanta.

Pernell was one of about 20 people who attended the small memorial that was held on the running deck.

“We just all held hands and prayed that the family would find comfort and peace. There were a lot of tears. We felt like it was all we could do,” she lamented.

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A passenger fell off the world’s biggest cruise ship and died

On the first leg of a seven-night voyage from florida, a man fell from a deck of icon of the seas and was pronounced dead after a two-hour rescue mission.

A man died after falling from the deck on the world’s largest cruise ship , Icon of the Seas last week. The massive vessel had just started a seven-night cruise from Miami, Florida, when the man fell from one of its 20 decks , sparking a two-hour rescue mission.

Related Content

The 1,200-foot long Icon of the Seas set sail from Florida on May 25 bound for its first stop at Honduras, reports the Royal Caribbean Blog . However, just a day after departing U.S. soil, the ship was forced into a dramatic rescue mission after an unnamed passenger fell from one of its decks.

The passenger reportedly plummeted into the Gulf of Mexico, sparking a two-hour rescue mission that involved crews from the ship as well as U.S. Coastguard officers. Rescue boats from the Royal Caribbean-operated cruise liner were quickly deployed to recover the man. As Royal Caribbean Blog reports:

The incident allegedly took place in the morning on Sunday, prompting an immediate rescue mission from the vessel. According to guests onboard Icon of the Seas, a small rescue boat was launched from Icon of the Seas to search for the overboard guest. Guests online stated that Icon of the Seas halted its course for approximately two hours to complete the search and rescue mission. Crew members took swift action while the ship maintained its location for the duration of the rescue mission.

However, while crews were able to recover the man after he fell from the ship and bring him back onboard alive, he reportedly succumbed to his injuries and died as a result of the fall. In a statement shared with Jalopnik, the U.S. Coastguard said:

The Coast Guard assisted in the search for a man who fell overboard the cruise ship Icon of the Seas. The cruise ship deployed one of their rescue boats, located the man and brought him back aboard. He was pronounced deceased. Beyond assisting in the search, the U.S. Coast Guard did not have much involvement in this incident.

Jalopnik has reached out to Royal Caribbean, which operates Icon of the Seas , for a statement about the death onboard its ship.

Royal Caribbean launched Icon of the Seas earlier this year, with the 7,600-passenger ship undertaking its maiden voyage in January. The ship, which is roughly 1,200 feet long and requires a crew of almost 3,000, features a water park onboard, an ice rink onboard and the largest swimming pool aboard any cruise ship.

A version of this article originally appeared on Jalopnik .

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Human Error Suspected as Hope Fades in Korean Ferry Sinking

Relatives of missing passengers from the sunken Sewol ferry waited for new information on Thursday at a gymnasium on Jindo Island in South Korea.

Rescuers search for passengers aboard a ferry sinking off South Korea’s southern coast.

Family members of passengers missing on the overturned ferry wept on at the port in Jindo.

Personal items belonging to students who were on the sinking ferry sit inside an empty classroom of Danwon High School in Ansan, South Korea.

A blue search light cast by a South Korean Coast Guard helicopter shows a sunken ferry.

Kim Jeong-geun, left, and Kang In-hwan, second from right, who both survived the sinking, wait to be discharged from Mokpo Hankook Hospital in Mokpo, South Korea.

Students at Danwon High School hold letters for students of the school who are among the missing passengers.

Relatives wait on a pier in Jindo as the frantic search for nearly 300 people, most of them schoolchildren, extended into a second day.

By Choe Sang-Hun ,  Su-Hyun Lee and Jiha Ham

• April 17, 2014

JINDO, South Korea — The captain was among the first to flee. Only a couple of the 44 life rafts aboard were deployed. The hundreds of passengers were instructed over the intercom to “stay inside and wait” as the ship leaned to one side and began to sink, dragging scores of students down with it.

“I repeatedly told people to calm themselves and stay where they were for an hour,” Kang Hae-seong, the communications officer on the South Korean ferry that sank on Wednesday , said from his hospital bed. He added that he could not recall taking part in any evacuation drills for the ship, and that when a real emergency came, “I didn’t have time to look at the manual for evacuation.”

It took two and a half hours for the ferry, the Sewol, to capsize and become submerged in the blue-gray waters off the southwestern tip of South Korea. Yet in that time, only 179 of the 475 people believed to have been on board were rescued. By Thursday evening, the confirmed death toll was 25.

By Friday, the vessel was completely submerged. But rescue divers, after two days of futile attempts, succeeded in swimming into the ship, though it was unclear how far they were able to enter. Rescuers were using high-pressure hoses to pump oxygen inside the ship, in the hope that some of the 271 people still missing, most of them students, might have survived in air pockets inside the overturned vessel.

As those efforts continued, evidence was growing that human error contributed to the accident, one of South Korea’s worst disasters in recent decades.

Kim Su-hyun, a provincial coast guard chief, told reporters on Thursday that the ship’s captain, Lee Jun-seok, stood accused of violating his responsibilities by abandoning the ferry ahead of most of his passengers. Coast guard officials who questioned Mr. Lee on Thursday said they were reviewing possible criminal charges, while the police said they were investigating whether he had escaped aboard one of the few life rafts used.

On Friday, Park Jae-uk, a senior investigator, said that Mr. Lee was not on the bridge at the time of the accident and left control of the ship to his third mate. “We are investigating where exactly he was at the time,” Mr. Park added.

Mr. Lee made a brief appearance before reporters on Thursday. “I can’t lift my face before the passengers and family members of those missing,” he said. But he provided little clarity on what led the 6,825-ton Sewol to lean so far to its side before sinking, and why so many aboard had been unable to escape.

For some maritime experts, the captain’s decision to abandon the ship and the crew’s emergency performance seemed to echo problems in the wreck of the Costa Concordia, an Italian cruise ship that ran aground in 2012, killing 32 people.

James T. Shirley Jr., an accident investigator in Newtown, Pa., said that in the two and a half hours it took the ship to sink, the crew “certainly had enough time to get most of the people off.”

“I don’t understand why the crew would be instructing passengers to stay inside the ship,” Mr. Shirley said. “I would think that if nothing else, they would be getting them outside with life jackets on so if it sank, they could at least get into the cold water with their jackets.”

Capt. William H. Doherty, a maritime safety expert at Nexus Consulting Group who commanded Navy and merchant ships, said there was “clearly a breakdown in safety training” on the South Korean ferry, a failure he said could be attributed to its officers and to Korean regulators.

“When they issued a safety certification for the ship, they had to certify that the crew was trained,” Captain Doherty said, noting the communications officer’s admission that he had not taken part in an evacuation drill. “You have to satisfy yourself that this crew is trained in all emergency situations.”

For the 325 students from Danwon High School who made up the bulk of the passengers, it was a trip they had been eagerly awaiting, a last chance for fun before a grueling year of studying for South Korea’s university entrance exam. Soon after the ferry left the port of Incheon on Tuesday night bound for the resort island of Jeju, they celebrated by launching fireworks from the deck.

According to survivors, the students were having a morning break after breakfast on Wednesday, roaming through the floors and snapping pictures on the deck, when the ship began tilting.

When the situation became critical, survivors said, many students were still on the third floor, where the cafeteria and game rooms were.

“I don’t remember that there was any safety instruction before we boarded the ship,” said Kim Su-bin, 16, a Danwon student who survived by climbing out of the sinking ship and jumping into the water. “Life jackets were on the fourth floor where the sleeping cabins were, but those who were on the third floor at the time had no life jackets.”

Investigators said the Sewol appeared to have made a sharp turn to the left around the time it began to tilt. It had been sailing slightly off its usual course, they said. It was unclear why such a turn was tried in waters known for their strong currents, or why the turn had caused the ship to lean.

Inside the ferry, chaos unfolded, survivors said, as the walls and floor seemed to exchange positions. Bottles and dishes fell. The ship’s twisting stairways became almost impossible to negotiate. Passengers were tossed to one side. Trays and soup bowls overturned, said Song Ji-cheol, a college student who worked part-time in the cafeteria.

“All of a sudden, we were submerged,” he said. “I tried to hold on to the tables, but they were moving around, too.”

At some point, survivors said, the lights went out.

“When the ship began tilting, there was a thudding noise, and I thought it was the noise made by students bumping into the walls,” Han Hee-min said on Thursday in a hospital in Ansan, the city south of Seoul where Danwon High School is. “I had a life jacket, so I floated. Some friends grabbed my leg, and I don’t know what happened to them.”

Grainy video footage taken with a smartphone and sent to a relative showed frightened passengers huddled in a corner as a voice on the ship’s intercom urged people to “stay inside and wait because the cabins are safer.” Gwon Ji-hyuck, 16, said he had heard that broadcast as well.

Han Sang-hyuk, 16, blamed the crew’s instructions for the high number of missing people, saying that those who stayed in their rooms or were caught in small alleyways between corridors would not have been able to escape.

The communications officer, Mr. Kang, 32, said that he and another crew member had been forced to make a quick decision. They thought that if passengers fled in a panicked rush, it could make matters worse, he said.

Shin Seong-hee, a Danwon student, was among those who heeded the advice. In a text message she sent to her father, she said the crew had told her that “it was more dangerous to move.”

Her father texted back, “I know the rescuers are coming but why don’t you try to come outside?”

“I can’t because the ship is tilting too much,” she said, in a text displayed by her sister. Ms. Shin has not been heard from since.

Some survivors gave accounts of professionalism and self-sacrifice by crew members. Kim Su-bin, the Danwon student who climbed out and jumped into the water, thanked Park Ji-young, a crew member who was found dead on Wednesday, for calming students and staying behind without a life jacket after helping students escape.

“Bring my child back alive!” some parents yelled on Thursday when President Park Geun-hye visited a gymnasium that local officials had turned into a shelter for grieving families. Ms. Park promised “all available resources” for the rescue efforts, and “a thorough investigation and stern punishment for those responsible.”

An editorial in the country’s leading conservative daily newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, which has been mostly supportive of Ms. Park’s government, denounced it for “floundering.”

“Above all, the people must have felt deeply that South Korea is a country that doesn’t value human lives,” it said. “Hundreds of passengers sank with the ship, but its captain and most of its crew came out alive.”

An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of the high school where most of the passengers were from. It is Danwon High School, not Dawon.

How we handle corrections

Choe Sang-Hun and Su-Hyun Lee reported from Jindo, and Jiha Ham from Ansan, South Korea. Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong, and Christopher Drew from New York.