Wed, Apr 30, 2014 page6

• Park says sorry for ferry response

  PROBE EXPANDS: South Korean investigators are looking into why the ferry’s crew called the ship’s owner seven times after issuing a distress call

  • AP, JINDO, South Korea
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  South Korea’s president apologized yesterday for the government’s inept initial response to a deadly ferry sinking, as divers fought strong currents in their search for nearly 100 passengers still missing nearly two weeks after the accident.

  The government also raised the death toll, for what has become a point of national mourning and shame, to 204. Most of the dead and missing are high-school students.

  Divers are largely using their hands to feel for remaining bodies as they make their way through a maze of dark cabins, stairwells, storage rooms, lounges and restaurants in the submerged ferry, which flipped upside-down as it sank on April 16. They must fight strong currents swirling around the ferry and, once inside, overturned furniture, mattresses and other debris floating in the murky, sediment-heavy waters.

  

  South Korean President Park Geun-hye yesterday pays her respects in front of a memorial altar for victims of the Sewol ferry disaster in Ansan.

  Photo: AFP

  South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s apology, and the earlier resignation of the prime minister, comes amid rising indignation over claims by the victims’ relatives that the government did not do enough to rescue or protect their loved ones.

  Park said at a Cabinet meeting at the presidential Blue House that South Korea has “lost many precious lives because of the accident, and I am sorry to the public and am heavy-hearted.”

  She says the government could not prevent the accident and “the initial response and remedy were insufficient.”

  Park had earlier visited a memorial set up in Ansan, the city where the high-school students are from, to pay her respects to victims. Wearing a black dress and white gloves, she laid flowers at an altar and bowed her head.

  According to local media, some angry family members of victims shouted at her and demanded an apology. She listened to them for 10 minutes before leaving.

  Meanwhile, investigators are expanding their probe into both the cause of the ship’s sinking and the initial response by emergency workers.

  Prosecutors are also analyzing calls exchanged between crew members of the ferry and the offices of the owner, Chonghaejin Marine Co, senior prosecutor Ahn Sang-don said yesterday.

  Multiple crew members on the sinking ferry communicated about seven times by telephone with the owner’s offices, Ahn said.

  The first call to the owner was placed at 9:01am, just six minutes after the ferry reported a distress call to a vessel traffic services center. The last call was made about 9:40am.

  South Korean media reports said the captain of the sinking ferry was seeking approval from Chonghaejin’s chief executive to be able to evacuate the ship, but Ahn said investigators are still looking into why the calls were made.

  Of the 475 people believed to have been aboard the ferry, only 174 people survived, including 22 of the 29 crew members.

  The government is making initial plans to eventually salvage the ferry, but has indicated it will not do so until search efforts end.

  All 15 crew members responsible for the ship’s navigation have been arrested, but they have not been formally charged.
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