When the Sewol-ho ferry first ran into trouble, most of its passengers followed the instructions given to them by the ship's crew and stayed put inside the ship.
This piece of information has confounded foreign maritime experts,... who say... that decision... and the indecisiveness on the part of the captain and crew, likely doomed hundreds on board.
Our Yoo Li-an has the details.
Maritime experts describe the announcements on the Sewol-ho ferry,... instructing people to stay in their rooms at the time of the accident as totally incomprehensible.
"In 99.9% of cases the crew is on top of it. They are well-trained and they are able to evacuate the ship in plenty of time."
The retired commodore says it is unacceptable that the captain completely failed in his duties to take control,... during the crucial moments after the accident.
"Key decisions should be made within the captains' minds within 5 to 10 minutes as soon as he gets a report from all the departments of the ship and assesses how much damage is done to the vessel itself."
Logs show that the captain of the Sewol-ho ferry, Lee Joon-seok,... delayed evacuation for at least 30 minutes after the ship began to capsize.
Others say the announcement telling people to stay where they were... actually made the situation worse.
Mario Vittone, a former U.S. Coast Guard maritime accident investigator and inspector says if those announcements were NOT made,.. the passengers would have gone to the deck to see what was going on.
Thad Allen, the former head of the U.S. Coast Guard, said common sense dictates that when a situation is deteriorating,... the crew needs to give up on trying to save the ship and pour efforts in to saving the passengers.
Yoo Li-an, Arirang News.
