The captain of the South Korean ferry that flipped over and sank abandoned the ship while hundreds of helpless students were still on board, angry survivors told authorities Thursday.
Thirty precious minutes passed before passengers were instructed to evacuate the ferry after it listed and began to sink Wednesday morning, 11 hours into a 14-hour trip to a resort island.
Ten minutes later, the ferry’s captain, Lee Joon-seok, was safely off the boat, along with most of his 30-member crew.
“I am sorry,” said a teary Lee, who shielded his face with a sweater as he talked to reporters. “I am at a loss for words.”
Lee could face criminal charges for his role in the disaster. While investigators quizzed Lee, rescue crews pumped oxygen into the hull of the sunken ferry Thursday in a desperate bid to buy time in their search for survivors.
A full day after the 6,800-ton ferry Sewol sank off South Korea’s southwest coast, divers held out hope that there were enough air pockets in the ship to keep missing passengers alive.
Early Friday, South Korean salvage crews brought three large cranes to the site in a bid to lift the overturned ship, according to The Wall Street Journal.
At least 25 people have been confirmed dead. Another 179 were rescued. But no one knows whether any of the nearly 300 missing passengers are still alive.
Richard Burke, chairman of the engineering department at SUNY Maritime College in The Bronx, said it’s remotely possible that survivors remain in the stricken ferry.
“It’s possible but not likely,” he told The Post, adding that people have lived in sunken ships for days but only in rare cases.
After the Pearl Harbor attack, they salvaged the ships and discovered that some of the crew had lived for many days.
Burke, also executive director of the college’s Global Maritime Center, said pumping oxygen into the vessel would not appreciably increase chances of survival.
“When you die of asphyxia, you don’t die from a lack of oxygen. You die from an excess of carbon dioxide,” he said.
Meanwhile, South Korean media outlets said 46 lifeboats were still attached to the ferry, further fueling the rage of parents who had been left with nothing but desperate text messages from their 16- and 17-year-old sons and daughters.
Video showed at least 12 white survival capsules, which hold the lifeboats, still attached to the ferry, even as it was keeled over in the water, CNN reported.
“The rescue wasn’t done well,” said Koo Bon-hee, a rescued passenger.
With Post Wire Services