World News
Radio transcript reveals last moments on Sewol─── 16:38 Sun, 20 Apr 2014
Seoul - Passengers aboard the doomed South Korean ferry could not board lifeboats because the vessel had already listed too much, a crew member on the ship said, according to a radio transcript released Sunday.
Here's an exchange between an unidentified crew member of the Sewol and the Jindo Vehicle Traffic Service:
The transcripts may help answer one of the major questions about the capsizing: Why didn't passengers escape on lifeboats?
"The ship rolled over a lot right now. Cannot move. Please come quickly," the person says one minute later.
- CNN
The dramatic conversation that took place while the Sewol ferry was sinking last Wednesday was released by the search mission's joint task force.
Sewol: "Our ship is listing and may fall."
Jindo VTS: "How are the passengers doing? ..."
Sewol: "It's too listed that they are not able to move."
Jindo VTS: "Are the passengers able to escape?"
Sewol: "The ship listed too much, so it is impossible."
The transcript reveals that someone on the ship contacted the traffic service in Jeju -- the ferry's destination -- at 8:55 a.m. and communicated with them before the conversation switched to Jindo VTS, which was closer, about 11 minutes later.
"Please notify the coast guard. Our ship is in danger. The ship is rolling right now," someone on the ship first tells Jeju.
Jeju asks where the ferry is and says it will notify the coast guard. The voice on the ferry says the ship is near Byeongpung Island.
The ferry apparently had listed quickly.
At one point Jeju advises the crew to get people into life vests.
"It is hard for people to move," Sewol replies.
At least 58 people have died in the sinking, and 244 are missing, the South Korean coast guard said Sunday.
Search crews brought more than a dozen bodies to shore Sunday morning, a solemn process pierced by deafening screams and cries from the passengers' families.
Although 174 people were rescued shortly after the vessel sank Wednesday, no survivors have been found since.
Nonetheless, 563 divers will continue plunging into the frigid Yellow Sea on Sunday. And 34 aircraft and 204 ships will aid in the search Sunday, the country's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said.
