Jindo, South Korea: Angry relatives of more than 200 people, mostly children, missing inside a sunken South Korea ferry demanded authorities act now to raise the vessel and hit out at officials, including the country’s president, as hopes of finding survivors faded.
Divers saw three bodies floating through a window of a passenger cabin on Saturday but were unable to retrieve them, the coastguard said.
Grieving parents and others gathered in a gymnasium in the port of Jindo, the rescue centre for the operation, were shown murky underwater video footage of the hull of the ship on Saturday for the first time.
It was impossible to see any bodies in the footage viewed by relatives and reporters at the site.
“Please lift the ship, so we can get the bodies out,” a woman who identified herself as the mother of a child called Kang Hyuck said, using a microphone in the gymnasium where hundreds of people have spent day and night since the ferry capsized on Wednesday.
“[President] Park Geun-hye should come here again,” she said of the South Korean leader who visited the site on Thursday.
Of the 273 missing, most are children from a single high school on the outskirts of the South Korean capital of Seoul. Some parents were giving DNA swabs so rescuers can identify the corpses.
Three cranes have been moved to the site of the rescue operation, but have not yet been deployed and divers have not been able to gain entry to the ship due to fast tides and murky water conditions. The weather was deteriorating in the afternoon, meaning the divers may not be able to start the operation on Saturday.
Divers tried to break the glass to get at the three bodies they saw on Saturday, but failed to do so, the coastguard said.
Coastguard spokesman Kim Jae-in said the cranes would be deployed when the divers said it was safe to do so.
“Lifting the ship does not mean they will remove it completely from the sea. They can lift it two to three metres off the seabed,” he said.
The cause of the capsize has not yet been identified, but the investigation has centred on what may have been a sudden turn by the Sewol ferry that may have caused its cargo to shift.
The capsize occurred in calm weather on a well-traveled 400km sea route from the mainland port of Incheon to the holiday island of Jeju some 25km from land.
The ship’s veteran captain, 69-year old Lee Joon-seok, faces five criminal charges and was arrested on Saturday along with two other crew members, according to coastguard officials.
Lee was not at the helm or on the bridge when the ferry capsized, although crew members said he tried to right the ship later. Witnesses say that he and other crew members escaped from the stricken vessel before giving orders for the passengers to escape.
The third mate, who had the helm at the time of the capsize, was one of those arrested.
The 20-year old ferry appeared to have a clean bill of health, based on its inspection record, although police have seized records from the ship owners, Chonghaejin Marine Co Ltd, and of the company that supervised the loading of the vessel.
Yonhap news agency said there were 180 vehicles being carried by the ferry along with 1,157 tons of freight. At least some of the freight was in containers stacked on the foredeck of the ferry.
Relatives and friends of the schoolchildren have also gathered at the Danwon High School in the commuter town of Ansan. The vice-principal of the school, Kang Min-gyu, 52, was one of those rescued.
He hanged himself outside the gym in Jindo, police said.
Kang was discovered on Friday and police released part of a two-page suicide note.
“Burn my body and scatter my ashes at the site of the sunken ferry. Perhaps I can become a teacher for the missing students in my next life,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Lee, the arrested captain, on Saturday said he had delayed evacuating the ship because of the sea conditions and the absence of rescue ships.
Lee Joon-seok and two of his crew were taken into police custody in the early hours of the morning, charged with negligence and failing to secure the safety of passengers in violation of maritime law.
A prosecutor said the third mate who was steering the ferry at the time of the accident was navigating those waters for the first time.
Senior prosecutor Yang Jung-jin told reporters the 25-year-old mate was steering the ship as it passed through an area with lots of islands clustered close together and fast currents.
Yang said another mate usually took control through the area but that changed because heavy fog caused a delay in departure.
During his police arraignment, during which he stood, head bowed, in a hooded raincoat, Lee was asked by TV reporters why passengers had been ordered to remain in their seats and cabins for more than 40 minutes after the ferry first sent a distress signal just before 9am local time on Wednesday.
“At the time a rescue ship had not arrived. There were also no fishing boats around there for rescues or other ships to help,” Lee said.
“The currents were very strong and water was cold at that time in the area.
“I thought that passengers would be swept far away and fall into trouble if they evacuated thoughtlessly without wearing lifejackets.
“It would have been the same even if they did wear lifejackets,” he said.
Furious relatives of the hundreds of passengers still missing — most of them schoolchildren — believe many more would have escaped if they had moved to evacuation points before the ship listed sharply and water started flooding in.
Twenty-nine people have been confirmed dead in the disaster, with 273 still missing.
Many of the more than 500 divers working on the rescue teams are civilian volunteers.
Nets would be placed around the submerged ferry to prevent any bodies drifting away during the eventual recovery process, Choi said, adding that the rescue teams had not given up hope of finding survivors trapped in air pockets.
Lee, 69, confirmed statements by investigative prosecutors on Friday that he was not at the helm of the ferry when it first ran into trouble.
“It happened as I was coming back after a quick visit to the bedroom for personal reasons,” he said, denying any suggestion that he had been intoxicated.
“I did not drink,” he said.
His comments offered no fresh insight into the chain of events that caused the 6,825-ton Sewol to sink.
Tracking data from the maritime ministry showed the vessel made a sharp turn just before sending its first distress signal.
Some experts believe a tight turn could have dislodged heavy cargo — including more than 150 vehicles — and destabilised the vessel, causing it to list heavily and then capsize.
But others suggested the turn might have been caused by a collision with a rock or other submerged object.
Investigators said the third officer was steering when the accident happened.
Lee acknowledged the charges brought against him and apologised to the victims of the disaster and their relatives.
“I sincerely apologise to people and the bereaved families for stirring up trouble,” he said.
