Transcript reveals indecision among Korean ferry crew

As divers continued to pull bodies out of the submerged hulk of the ferry Sewol yesterday, there were indications that indecision and confusion as the South Korean ferry was sinking may have added to a death toll that could eventually exceed 300.

The ferry sank with 476 people on board, many of them students from a single secondary school. The cause of the disaster is not yet known, but prosecutors have said the ship made a sharp turn before it began to list.

Several crew members, including the captain, have been arrested on suspicion of negligence and abandoning passengers. Recordings reveal that the captain was among the first to escape, which has fuelled enormous public anger.

One of those taken into custody was a rookie third mate who a prosecutor said was steering in challenging waters unfamiliar to her when the accident occurred.

Beginning late on Saturday, when divers broke a window, multiple teams of divers have found various ways of accessing the ferry, discovering bodies in different spots, coast guard official Koh Myung-seok told a briefing.

Thirteen bodies had been found in the ship, and three others were found floating outside, coast guard official Kim Jin-cheol said.

Survivors
More than 170 people survived the sinking of the Sewol , which had been on its way from the South Korean port city of Incheon to the southern tourist island of Jeju.

The transcript of the ferry’s last communication with a maritime control tower makes for chilling reading.

"Are you sure if we have passengers escape from the ship, will they be rescued immediately?" asked the ferry's senior mate around 30 minutes after the Sewol began tilting. The crew member posed the question three times in succession.

He was told: “It’s up to you. You know better than us here. We’ll leave this up to your judgment. But you don’t have time to waste. Decide whether to evacuate the people or not soon!”

Trapped
Many people followed the captain's initial order to stay below deck, where it is feared they were trapped. Fifty-eight bodies have been recovered, and about 240 people are still missing.

"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," the captain Lee Jeon-suk said in the face of a wave of public anger.

“At the time, the current was very strong, the temperature of the ocean water was cold, and I thought that if people left the ferry without [proper] judgment, if they were not wearing a life-jacket, and even if they were, they would drift away and face many other difficulties,” he said. “The rescue boats had not arrived yet, nor were there any civilian fishing ships or other boats nearby at that time.”

As well as relatives blaming crew errors, there were suspicions of repeated mistakes regarding casualty figures, which has led families of those still missing to distrust the government’s ability to handle the disaster.

In the five days since the accident, the authorities have changed the numbers of victims, survivors and the missing six times.