South Korean coastguard and navy divers continued searching on Thursday for roughly 290 people still missing, many of them students from the same high school, after a ferry tipped over in sight of land.
Grieving family members gathered on the quay of the coastal city of Jindo, covered in blankets against the spring cold while efforts to search for the missing went into a second day.
One parent, Park Yung-suk, told Reuters she had seen the body of her daughter’s teacher brought ashore in the morning.
“If I could teach myself to dive, I would jump in the water and try to find my daughter,” Park said.
Of roughly 450 passengers on board when the ferry set sail from the Incheon port late Tuesday, nearly 340 were teenagers and teachers from the Danwon school near Seoul on a field trip to Jeju island, about 100 km south of the Korean peninsula.
So far 179 people have been rescued and six are confirmed dead.
As coastguard officials arrived at Jindo, waiting relatives hooted at them, shouting: “The weather’s nice, why aren’t you starting the rescue.”
It is not known why the 6,586 tonne vessel, built in Japan 20 years ago, sank.
As frustration grew, some parents of missing school children even hired their own boat on Wednesday night. They also blamed the government of President Park Geun-hye and rescue officials for not putting in maximum effort.
“Since the government refused to take us to the scene 11 parents chipped in 61,000 won each to hire a boat and took a reporter and a diver. But there was no rescue operation going on,” said one father.
“I am extremely angry. Media is saying the rescue op is still going on. It’s all a lie,” he said.
It was not instantly identified why the Sewol ferry had tipped heavily onto its side in seemingly calm waters off South Korea’s southwest coast, but some survivors spoke of a loud noise prior to the disaster.
A member of the crew of a local government ship involved in the rescue, who said he had talked to members of the sunken ferry’s crew, characterizes the area as free of reefs or rocks and said the cause was probably some sort of malfunction on the vessel.
There were reports of the ferry having steered off course, but coordinates of the accident site indicated it was not far off the usual shipping lane.
The ferry sent a distress signal early Wednesday, the coastguard said, prompting a rescue operation that involved nearly 100 coastguard and navy vessels and fishing boats, as well as 18 helicopters.
According to a coastguard official, the waters where the ferry capsized omit some of the strongest tides off South Korea’s coast, meaning divers were prohibited from entering the mostly submerged ship for several hours.
The ship has a capacity of about 900 people and an overall length of 146 metres (480 feet). Shipping records show it was built in Japan in 1994.
According to public shipping databases, the registered owner of the ship is Chonghaejin Marine Co Ltd, based in Incheon.
Earlier, company officials offered an apology for the accident but declined to give more comments.
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