Ship sinks of South Korea with 462 people on-board - 6 Confirmed Dead, 282 Missing

Jack1985

According to the South Korean Coastguard (SKC), a ship carrying 462 people mainly high school students and teachers, has capsized of the south coast of South Korea after hitting a reef during fog.

UPDATES

16/04/2014

02:52 - 120 people have been rescued.

03:11 - Reports: 338 Students and Teachers have been rescued from the Ship. The ship has now completely sunk.

03:57 - SKC: We can only confirm 110 people as safe, one fatality has been confirmed. 34 naval, coastguard and civilian vessels are involved in the rescue operation, along with 18 helicopters.

05:01 - 2 people confirmed dead.

13:00 - 160 people confirmed rescued, four confirmed dead and 300 believed missing.

16:00 - 174 people have been confirmed rescued, 13 of whom have been injured. Four people are confirmed dead and 284 remain missing.

17/04/2014

00:00 - Six people are now confirmed dead, 282 remain missing.

sdanseo

LizzieJones wrote: »

Was there an iceberg?

Off South Korea, in Spring?

dubscottie

North Korean Torpedo prehaps?

Jack1985

Was there an iceberg?

Very bad fog at the time which seems to have cleared up.

North Korean Torpedo prehaps?

Of the south coast of South Korea is where this has occurred. Although tbh, I wouldn't rule anything out with that nut in North Korea.

Jack1985

South Korean government has now said it is only able to confirm 110 people have been rescued. A single fatality has been confirmed.

Confirmed details about incident:

*Vessel was carrying a total of 476 passengers and crew, of which 325 were high school students on a trip to Jeju island, one of the country's most popular tourist destinations.
*34 naval, coastguard and civilian vessels are involved in the rescue operation, along with 18 helicopters.
*6,825-tonne ferry involved.
*Manifest shows 150 cars aboard.
*President orders: ''Make efforts not to leave a single casualty.''

Merkin

I'm finding the reporting of this really pretty tasteless and voyeuristic.

CNN has a link to a video on their site with a big headline SHIP WITH KIDS SINKING.

Think I'll pass on watching that, thanks

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/15/world/asia/south-korea-sinking-ship-students/

Jack1985

CNN has a link to a video on their site with a big headline SHIP WITH KIDS SINKING.

Typical CNN!

moc moc a moc

LizzieJones wrote: »

Was there an iceberg?

I don't know whether you're a complete idiot, or a disgusting, ghoulish troll.

Banned

diomed

With aircraft disappearing and ships hitting things you wonder how these things happen with electronic navigation and collision avoidance fitted.

TeddyTedson

moc moc a moc wrote: »

I don't know whether you're a complete idiot, or a disgusting, ghoulish troll.

If fairness they've already explained their reasoning for the earlier comment.
Also "freezing waters" is mentioned several times in the actual article.

Jesus though, with so many unaccounted for it's awful news that the ship is almost completely submerged.
Hopefully the death toll doesn't increase.
Tragic for the families affected especially considering they were away on a school trip.

LizzieJones

moc moc a moc wrote: »

I don't know whether you're a complete idiot, or a disgusting, ghoulish troll.

Banned

Sorry. I deleted those messages.

josip

Things not looking great for the remaining 300 according to the authorities.
Given that it capsized and went down so quickly, would there be any chance of airpockets?
Divers have been down already so it's reachable.

131spanner

34 vessels and 18 helicopters involved in the rescue effort. Faith in humanity restored.

Jack1985

Looking bad at this stage - 160 rescued, four dead, 300 missing.

TeddyTedson

Very worrying there are still 284 people still unaccounted for.

TeddyTedson

There seems to be very little news about this story?
I haven't heard a thing about it watching sky news for the last 20 minutes.
Perhaps there's little information available right now but that hasn't stopped them with constant coverage about the missing plane.

The Backwards Man

TeddyTedson wrote: »

There seems to be very little news about this story?
I haven't heard a thing about it watching sky news for the last 20 minutes.
Perhaps there's little information available right now but that hasn't stopped them with constant coverage about the missing plane.

Plane crashes are sexier and sell more advertising than sinking boats Teddy. Callous, but that's the way the world works.

Jack1985

Unfortunately even though there will more than likely be a higher loss of life in this accident, a plane crash takes precedence - tell's you all you need to know about the media really.

Update - Six confirmed dead, 174 rescued, 282 missing.

TeddyTedson

What could have caused this disaster. Rescued people have said they heard a loud noise before the ship began to sink in apparently calm waters.
Today strong currents are hampering the search for the 290 unaccounted for.

I see no reason for the lack of media coverage on this. It's every bit as harrowing as a plane crash and in many ways worse, firstly considering how many children are missing and secondly just imaging the ferry sinking slowly and beginning to fill with freezing water is in my opinion a worse death than a plane plummeting towards the ground. I don't want to focus too much on this point out of respect but it makes zero sense to me as to why this story is receiving so little attention from media outlets.

Almost 300 people are not expected to be found alive right now.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Crazy to think this has happened. I know loads of people who have taken ferries to Jeju before, it would never even cross my mind that one might sink. It's like the ferry to Holyhead going under in the Irish sea, it's the kind of thing you would assume is perfectly safe.

Jonny7

TeddyTedson wrote: »

I see no reason for the lack of media coverage on this.

It's on the front pages of every news site I'm reading, was huge coverage on the telly last night

Still we have no idea what caused the boat to capsize in fairly calm waters - some students say they heard a loud bang

The One Doctor

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Crazy to think this has happened. I know loads of people who have taken ferries to Jeju before, it would never even cross my mind that one might sink. It's like the ferry to Holyhead going under in the Irish sea, it's the kind of thing you would assume is perfectly safe.

Ships are not nearly as safe as you might expect. The shipping industry does not subscribe to the same levels of safety as the air transport industry. Ships are registered under flags of convenience to avoid high insurance costs and ship design standards. The crews are usually not trained to a consistent worldwide standard and in some countries to barely any standard at all. Furthermore, maintenance can be fairly lax, and balance and loading issues are routinely ignored. Checklists are not used consistently and collisions are fairly frequent. In other words, it's once of the less safe forms of mass transport.

goose2005

The One Doctor wrote: »

Ships are not nearly as safe as you might expect. The shipping industry does not subscribe to the same levels of safety as the air transport industry. Ships are registered under flags of convenience to avoid high insurance costs and ship design standards. The crews are usually not trained to a consistent worldwide standard and in some countries to barely any standard at all. Furthermore, maintenance can be fairly lax, and balance and loading issues are routinely ignored. Checklists are not used consistently and collisions are fairly frequent. In other words, it's once of the less safe forms of mass transport.

Which is pretty terrible. I mean, with airlines it's pretty clear - if you don't conform to safety you can't land in our airport. A load of dodgy airlines are banned from the whole EU for not meeting standards. How hard would it be to ban dodgy shipping companies from our ports?

131spanner

Jonny7 wrote: »

Still we have no idea what caused the boat to capsize in fairly calm waters - some students say they heard a loud bang

I think I read that they hit a reef after losing their bearings in foggy conditions. Not sure.

Any update on the numbers missing or confirmed dead?

Omackeral

131spanner wrote: »

Any update on the numbers missing or confirmed dead?

Paper today says there are 271 passengers still missing. The dead include a number of school children. Meanwhile, the Captain of the vessel Lee Joon-Seok has been summoned to court. The paper also includes a picture of him being one of the first to get on a rescue boat while the school kids were left behind, which he says he is ashamed of. Also related to the story is the fact that the Vice Principal (Kang Min-Kyu) of the missing pupils has committed suicide as he suffered from survivors guilt.

Jack1985

29 are now confirmed dead, 273 remain missing. The Captain has been arrested with other crew members on charges of delaying evacuation resulting in death.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0419/609792-anger-mounts-after-bodies-found-in-korean-ferry/

A Primal Nut

The teacher who organised the trip killed himself.

Really sad.

http://rt.com/news/korea-ship-suicide-dead-388/

guineylab

as the ship was sinking why did the rescue crews not break the windows that were still exposed? some looked big enough for people to crawl out of

beks101

TeddyTedson wrote: »

There seems to be very little news about this story?
I haven't heard a thing about it watching sky news for the last 20 minutes.
Perhaps there's little information available right now but that hasn't stopped them with constant coverage about the missing plane.

US networks are all over it like a rash. CNN is probably 70:30 sunken ship:missing plane at this stage. Which considering it seems to have had a pathological need to broadcast nonsense plane updates every 2.5 seconds for the last month, is pretty expansive.

There are still 250+ people missing and the hope that some 'air pocket' in the passenger cabin is keeping them alive is almost beyond all reasonable expectation at this point - more likely the cranes will lift the ferry up to reveal hundreds of dead bodies of mostly teenage high school students - at which point this story becomes huge.

Femme_Fatale

There's loads of media coverage of this tragedy.

Ironically when the missing plane story broke, there were accusations of insufficient media coverage, yet on this thread, accusations of too much.

TeddyTedson

When it first broke I was trying to find out more about it but there didn't seem to be much. I think it was that there was no news rather than neglecting it considering initial reports proved to be wrong.
It would be absolutely incredible if they have been kept alive in an air pocket. Here's hoping!!
Tragic that the teacher killed himself. They really should have had someone looking after him during this with the brunt he was taking from distraught parents.

beks101

TeddyTedson wrote: »

I think it was that there was no news rather than neglecting it considering initial reports proved to be wrong.

I think the initial faffing around of the coast guard and the South Korean authorities prevented lots of news organizations from putting it at the top of their agenda.

There was an awful miscommunication of information on that first day, where the coast guard rushed into stating that the 300-odd students and teachers on board were 'all safe' - and that the remaining were probably ship crew involved in the rescue and scattered across the ocean, making them hard to count - only to later back-track and say they had miscalculated and in fact this wasn't true at all.

I work for an international news network and this initial release of information was what preventing us from sending a crew to South Korea for another 24 hours, because we didn't perceive the situation to be as dire as it would transpire to be.

The whole rescue operation has been mired by miscommunication, inaccurate death tolls and rescue tolls, disorganized press conferences, and the general mood at that gymnasium in Jindo where the families are awaiting news is increasingly tense, angry, grim and frustrated - which in turn means the authorities are clamping down on the media presence there. Which further restricts reporting capabilities.

The Diabolical Monocle

Saw a graphic earlier (sorry dont have link) showing the timeline of events together with an illustration of each stage of the ship's tilting.

Looked to be that the greater part of passengers would have had up to 45 minutes from the very beginning.

However it may be the case that rather than being able to simply walk down a corridor to an exit - that as the ship tipped sideways, the corridors positions would increase in angle until vertical - i.e everything got turned sideways slowly. A corridor is now like the bottom of a lift shaft. You'd have to climb the length of the corridor.

AlanS181824

Horrible news, thoughts are with the families of the deceased.

bodhrandude

A follow up link to the story, it seems there still is about 240 people missing 58 bodies have been recovered so far. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/transcript-reveals-indecision-among-korean-ferry-crew-1.1768454

TeddyTedson

They say drowning is a peaceful way to die. How could they know that?

SnakePlissken

TeddyTedson wrote: »

They say drowning is a peaceful way to die. How could they know that?

Don't believe I've ever heard anyone describe it as such.

Jack1985

TeddyTedson wrote: »

They say drowning is a peaceful way to die. How could they know that?

I couldn't imagine anything worse being honest, I nearly drowned around 8 after being sucked into a current on holiday in Dingle, only that my mother spotted me and with the help of other people pulled me out of the water am I alive today - I don't remember a whole lot, other than fighting to go back to the surface and progressively becoming weaker until I lost consciousness, I had an absolute fear of water for years after that, even baths which is laughable I know - But have fortunately overcome my fear of water now. Being in a tight space on a ship flooding and hearing other people screaming as it sinks further, is anything but peaceful I'd imagine.

RIP to the victims, now confirmed at 113 with 189 missing and confirmed total of 174 survivors.

Andy-Pandy

TeddyTedson wrote: »

They say drowning is a peaceful way to die. How could they know that?

I nearly drowned as a kid. After the initial panic I just kind of just peacefully floated around, no stress or panic. I don't remember it being a frightening experience.

bodhrandude

Have been following up occasionally on this story http://time.com/82316/south-korea-ferry-stability-sewol/ The latest so far is that 90 people is still missing with 210 bodies recovered. It seems that the Sewol had similar problems to the MS Estonia that sank in 1994 in the Baltic during a 12 hour crossing from Estonia to Stockholm in Sweden, problems with the ship's stability and the overloading of water in the ballast.

The weather wasn't as extreme as the Estonia sinking, but the Sewol went down in a very similar way, listing at port side, inverting on to its hull and sinking.

I was trawling the net reading about survivors accounts from sinking ocean liners and I came across this piece that just seem so succinct in describing what its like to be nearly trapped in a sinking ships interior and it seriously makes for creepy but interesting reading. If you are on a sinking ship make sure to hell that you get up fast to the outside deck before the ships list hits 45 degrees. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/05/a-sea-story/302940/ And for further reading, if the Estonia sinking intrigues this alternate investigation to the sinking claims the governements investigation is complete lies, fantasy and fabrication. http://heiwaco.tripod.com/news5.htm