Diver dies in South Korea ferry searches
Print Edition
A DIVER died yesterday while working at the scene of South Korea’s ferry disaster, as investigators disclosed that the ship was carrying nearly four times its legal limit of cargo.
Lee Gwang-Wook suffered breathing difficulties after reaching a depth of 25 meters, said coast guard spokesman Ko Myung-Suk.
The 53-year-old, who was making his first dive at the scene, lost consciousness and was pronounced dead in hospital.
Lee lost contact with surface controllers after five minutes in the water. His air hose was found entangled with other lines, a coast guard official was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.
“He was a veteran diver, who used to work up to 60 metres below the surface,” his brother-in-law Kim Hyun-Chul said.
Lee was the first victim among scores of divers engaged in the grim and dangerous task of finding and retrieving bodies from the sunken ship, while fighting strong currents and low visibility in silty water.
Some 10 others have received treatment for exhaustion and decompression sickness since the operation began.
It has been 20 days since the 6,825-tonne Sewol capsized and sank with 476 people on board — most of them schoolchildren — off the southwest coast.
The confirmed death toll rose to 264 yesterday afternoon, while 38 people remain missing.
Yonhap, citing investigators, said yesterday that the ferry was overloaded on 139 out of its 241 voyages between the western port of Incheon and the southern resort island of Jeju since beginning the service in March last year.
When disaster struck it was carrying 3,608 tons of cargo — more than half its own weight — including 108 vehicles, the news agency quoted investigators as saying. The legal limit, according to Yonhap, was 987 tons.
It was carrying just 580 tons of ballast water — just 37 percent of the legal requirement — in order to carry more cargo. This made the ship dangerously unbalanced, Yonhap reported.
President Park Geun-Hye yesterday issued a fresh apology for her government’s failure to prevent the tragedy and renewed a pledge to eradicate “corruption and wrongdoing” blamed for the disaster.
“Greed for material gain prevailed over safety regulations and such irresponsible behavior resulted in the loss of precious lives,” said Park.
The ferry sinking is one of South Korea’s worst peacetime disasters, made all the more shocking by the loss of so many young lives.
Of those on board, 325 were students from the same high school in Ansan city, just south of Seoul.
All 15 of the surviving crew — including the captain — who were responsible for sailing the ferry are in custody, facing charges including negligence and abandoning passengers.
Prosecutors also arrested three officials from ferry operator Chonghaejin Marine Co last week on charges of loading the vessel beyond its legal limit.
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