Ferry Transcript Shows Confusion And Panic: 'Please Come Quickly'
For more than 40 minutes as their ship foundered last Wednesday, crew members of the South Korean ferry Sewol spoke with local maritime traffic services about a possible rescue. The conversation centered on getting help to the ship and on getting its passengers off the ferry, according to a transcript released Sunday.
The radio transcript gives harrowing new detail to a tragedy that has left about 240 people still missing. Chief among the revelations is that early in its plight, the vessel seems to have listed too far to one side to deploy life boats – or to allow passengers to move.
The transcript also suggests the ship's crew had trouble communicating with the passengers and couldn't verify conditions on board, as the ship titled at more than 50 degrees.
The ferry had 476 people aboard, many of them high school students who were traveling to visit a resort island. As of Sunday afternoon in the U.S., the official death toll stood at 58; many expect it go far higher. Divers are working to recover bodies from the wreck.
Two topics – the promise of help from other ships, and the status of the ferry's passengers – dominate the radio transcript South Korea's coast guard released Sunday. The distress call took place between the Sewol and Jindo Island's Vessel Traffic Services Center; other ships in the area are also heard from.
Jindo is a large island off of South Korea's southwest coast where hundreds of passengers' relatives have gathered to await word of loved ones who were on the ferry.
The transcript documents communications between the authorities and unidentified crew members, including an early distress call the ferry had placed to a Vessel Traffic Service center in Jeju, its destination.
That initial call took place at 8:55 a.m. In it, a crewmember says, "Please notify the coast guard. Our ship is in danger. The ship is rolling right now," according to CNN.
From CNN:
"'The ship rolled over a lot right now. Cannot move. Please come quickly,' the person says one minute later.
"At one point Jeju advises the crew to get people into life vests.
"'It is hard for people to move,' Sewol replies."