Watch above: Frustrated families are pleading with officials to ramp up recovery efforts so they can lay their loved ones to rest. Mike Drolet reports.
The captain accused of bungling the evacuation of a sinking South Korean ferry that has already claimed scores of lives is under further scrutiny.
A video released by CBS shows Capt. Lee Joon-seok among the first to receive medical treatment after fleeing the ferry.
According to doctors quoted by CBS say that 68-year-old Lee was treated along with the first survivors to escape the sinking vessel and acted as though he were just another passenger.
The captain and two crew members have been arrested on suspicion of negligence and abandoning people in need.
READ MORE: Grim work for families of South Korean ferry passengers as divers find many more bodies
ABOVE: South Korea’s president calls ferry sinking murder. Sean O’Shea reports.
Prosecutors said Monday four other crew members have been detained.
Senior prosecutor Ahn Sang-don said prosecutors would decide within 48 hours whether to seek arrest warrants for the four: two first mates, a second mate and a chief engineer.
In another clip obtained by CBS, Lee described the ferry’s route as safe and instructed passengers to listen to crew members at all times.
As the ferry sank, Lee told passengers to stay in their rooms and waited more than 30 minutes to issue an evacuation order.
By that point, the ship had tilted so much, it’s believed many passengers were left trapped inside.
Officials said Tuesday the death toll from the ferry disaster has risen to over 100 with roughly 200 people still missing.
WATCH: Distraught relatives of hundreds of missing passengers on board the sunken South Korean ferry clash with police as the official death toll rises.
South Korea deeply shaken by ferry tragedy
The families of the victims and missing passengers have expressed their outrage over the ferry disaster.
So has the South Korean president.
READ MORE: South Korea ferry probe focused on sharp turn, captain’s actions
“What the captain and part of the crew did is unfathomable from the viewpoint of common sense. Unforgivable, murderous behaviour,”President Park Geun-hye said Monday.
She said instead of following a marine traffic controller’s instructions to “make the passengers escape,” the captain and some crew members “told the passengers to stay put while they themselves became the first to escape.”
“Legally and ethically… this is an unimaginable act,” Park said.
Transcript highlights indecision on board ship
A transcript of ship-to-shore communications released Sunday revealed a ship that was crippled with indecision. A crew member asked repeatedly whether passengers would be rescued after abandoning ship even as the ferry tilted so sharply that it became impossible to escape.
Lee, 68, has said he waited to issue an evacuation order because the current was strong, the water was cold and passengers could have drifted away before help arrived. But maritime experts said he could have ordered passengers to the deck – where they would have had a greater chance of survival – without telling them to abandon ship.
The cause of the disaster is not yet known, but prosecutors have said the ship made a sharp turn before it began to list. The third mate, who has been arrested, was steering at the time of the accident, in a challenging area where she had not steered before, and the captain said he was not on the bridge at the time.
Authorities have not identified the third mate, though a colleague identified her as Park Han-kyul. Senior prosecutor Ahn said Monday the third mate has told investigators why she made the sharp turn, but he would not reveal her answer, and more investigation is needed to determine whether the answer is accurate.
Many relatives of the dead and missing also have been critical of the government, which drew more outrage Monday with the resignation of Song Young-chur, a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Security and Public Administration.
Song, chief of the Regional Development Policy Bureau, reportedly tried to take a commemorative photo Sunday evening of the situation room in Jindo where government officials brief relatives of the missing.
Yonhap news agency reported that one family member shouted, “We are a nervous wreck here, and this is something to commemorate for you?”
Blue House spokesman Min Kyung-wook said the government accepted Song’s resignation “as a warning to others, as he has raised public resentment by trying to take commemorative photos without understanding the feeling of the families of the victims and lost persons.”
The search effort on Monday included more than 200 rescue boats, 35 aircraft, 13 fishing boats and 641 personnel, mostly coast guard and navy.
*With files from the Associated Press
Comments