New Straits Times......
Updates 5/7/14 .....
(LEAD) All-out efforts to search sunken ferry continue amid weak currents
2014/05/07 16:56
JINDO, South Korea, May 7 (Yonhap) -- Rescue workers continued their intensive search Wednesday for 34 people still missing in the sinking of a ferry 22 days ago amid favorable weather conditions and slow tidal currents.
The 6,825-ton ferry, the Sewol, plying between Incheon, west of Seoul, and the southern resort island of Jeju, sank in waters off South Korea's southwestern island of Jindo on April 16. Of the 476 people on board, 268 have been confirmed dead, with 174 others rescued on the day of the tragedy.
Coast Guard, Navy and civilian divers worked in shifts to open all of the 64 passenger cabins where the missing are thought to be trapped, officials said, adding that they plan to wrap up the search into other convenience facilities comprised of singing rooms, a dining hall and lounge by Saturday.
The Herculean task of retrieving bodies repeatedly halted and resumed overnight as tidal currents became faster than forecast, but divers entered the sunken vessel in the morning as waters slowed down.
The currents are forecast to slow down for four days through Saturday. Waves in the area were expected to reach 0.5 meter, with wind blowing at a speed of 6 to 9 meters per second.
Authorities said they have dispatched military doctors near the sinking site, a day after the death of a civilian diver during the search operation.
On Tuesday, a 53-year-old civilian worker named Lee Kwang-wook fell unconscious shortly after diving into waters around 25 meters deep. The veteran diver from Undine Marine Industries was pronounced dead after being transferred to a nearby hospital.
"One naval surgeon, one military doctor, and two emergency medical technicians were deployed to a ship near waters off the sinking site," Park Seung-kee, a spokesman for the government emergency response team, told a press briefing. "We are still reviewing whether to deploy more civilian doctors."
The team has also asked fishermen to search the waters near the sinking site amid fears that bodies and belongings of the passengers could be swept away from the sunken vessel.
The team has also asked fishermen to search the waters near the sinking site amid fears that bodies and belongings of the passengers could be swept away from the sunken vessel.
Despite installing stow nets and having tow-boats trawl closer to the site, authorities have retrieved life vests and what appeared to be some of the victims' personal belongings on Jindo's shoreline.
Tidal currents are slow in waters near the sinking iste of the Sewol on May. 7, 2014 as rescue workers continued their intensive search for 34 people still missing. (Yonhap)
(END)
Park to hold emergency economic meeting amid consumption slowdown over ferry tragedy
2014/05/07 15:12
SEOUL, May 7 (Yonhap) -- President Park Geun-hye plans to hold an emergency meeting with economic ministers and private experts later this week to check the effects of a recent slowdown in consumption and draw up countermeasures, an official said Wednesday.
Friday's meeting is believed to have been hurriedly set up as consumption shows signs of slowing down as the country has been mournful in recent weeks over the tragic sinking of the ferry Sewol that left more than 300 people dead or missing, most of them high school students.
Attending the session will be Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok, other economy-related ministers, private experts and business representatives, presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook said. The meeting is aimed at "checking the economic situation vis-a-vis the recent shrinking of consumption" and drawing up countermeasures, he said.
On Tuesday, Hyun said in a meeting with economic think-tank chiefs that the ferry's sinking is believed to be negatively affecting consumption and activity in the services industry, citing a slowdown in retail sales and consumption in cultural facilities and tourism.
(END)
From before.....
04 May 2014| last updated at 11:48AM
S. Korea Ferry Incident: Divers struggle to open blocked cabins
SEOUL: South Korean dive teams struggled today to gain access to blocked cabins of a submerged ferry that sank nearly three weeks ago, as the confirmed death toll from the disaster rose to 242.
Six more bodies were recovered early today, 18 days after the 6,825-tonne Sewol capsized and sank with 476 people on board — most of them schoolchildren — while 60 remain unaccounted for.
“Rescuers using some equipment are trying to open blocked cabins,” spokesman Ko Myeong-Suk told a morning briefing.
The search has been hampered by fast currents and high waves, while dive teams have been working in challenging and sometimes hazardous conditions.
They have to grope their way down guiding ropes to the sunken ship, struggling through narrow passageways and rooms littered with floating debris in silty water.
As days go by, personal belongings and other items from the ship have been spotted further and further away, fuelling concerns that some victims of the ferry disaster may never be found.
One body was retrieved Friday by a fishing vessel four kilometres (two miles) away from the recovery site, and another was found two kilometres away on Wednesday.
As a precaution, recovery workers have put rings of netting around the site.
Bedding materials from the ship were found as far as 30 kilometres from the disaster site on Friday.
It is one of South Korea’s worst peacetime disasters, made all the more shocking by the loss of so many young lives.
Of those on board, 325 were students from the same high school in Ansan city, just south of Seoul.
Public anger has focused on the captain and crew members who abandoned the ship while hundreds were trapped inside, and on the authorities as more evidence emerges of lax safety standards and possible corruption among state regulators.
The captain and 14 of his crew have been arrested.
The Sewol’s regular captain, who was off duty on the day of the accident, has told prosecutors that the ferry operator — Chonghaejin Marine Co — brushed aside” repeated warnings that the 20-year-old ship had stability issues following a renovation in 2012.
Two Chonghaejin officials were arrested on Friday on charges of having the ferry overloaded well beyond its legal limit.--AFP
04 May 2014| last updated at 04:33PM
S. Korea Ferry Incident: S. Korea leader vows to punish disaster culprits
SEOUL: South Korean President Park Geun-Hye today met relatives of passengers still missing after the sinking of a ferry last month, vowing that any culprits would be “sternly punished” as the confirmed death toll rose to 244.
Eight more bodies were recovered today, 18 days after the 6,825-tonne Sewol capsized and sank with 476 people on board — most of them schoolchildren — while 58 remain unaccounted for.
“Anyone responsible for the accident and criminally at fault will be sternly punished,” Park said during a meeting with relatives camped on Jindo, the nearest island to the wreck where search operations are centred.
“I feel a sense of unlimited responsibility... It is heart-rending to imagine how you are feeling,” she said, according to a pool report.
Television footage showed Park, who was visiting Jindo for the second time since the ferry sank on April 16, inspecting a tented village set up in the harbour to manage the process of identifying recovered bodies.
The meeting comes days after she apologised for her government’s failure to combat systemic and regulatory “evils” that may have contributed to the accident and her comments reiterated an earlier promise to hold those responsible accountable.
The ferry sinking is one of South Korea’s worst peacetime disasters, made all the more shocking by the loss of so many young lives.
Of those on board, 325 were students from the same high school in Ansan city, just south of Seoul.
Public anger has focused on the captain and 14 of his crew who abandoned the ship while hundreds were trapped inside.
But criticism has also been directed at the government, as more evidence emerges of lax safety standards and possible corruption among state regulators.
Some victims’ families have rejected Park’s apology.
Dive teams have been struggling to gain access to blocked cabins of the submerged ferry, with the search hampered by fast currents and high waves.
Divers have had to grope their way down guiding ropes to the sunken ship, struggling through narrow passageways and rooms littered with floating debris in silty water.
As days go by, personal belongings and other items from the ship have been spotted further and further away, fuelling concerns that some victims of the ferry disaster may never be found.
One body was retrieved Friday by a fishing vessel four kilometres (two miles) away from the recovery site, and another was found two kilometres away on Wednesday.
As a precaution, recovery workers have put rings of netting around the site.
Bedding materials from the ship were found as far as 30 kilometres from the disaster site on Friday.
The Sewol’s regular captain, who was off duty on the day of the accident, has told prosecutors that the ferry operator — Chonghaejin Marine Co — “brushed aside” repeated warnings that the 20-year-old ship had stability issues following a renovation in 2012.
Two Chonghaejin officials were arrested last week and another on Sunday on charges of having the ferry overloaded well beyond its legal limit.
In Ansan, a dozen masked relatives carrying placards staged a silent protest Sunday outside a temporary memorial.
“We want an investigation to uncover truth so my child can smile,” read one placard.
Ansan, home to the Danwon High School that most of the students on board the ferry attended, has become a focal point of national mourning.
More than 322,000 mourners have visited the memorial set up following the tragedy. -- AFP
Yonhap News Agency ......
Death toll from ferry disaster rises to 242
2014/05/04 10:21
SEOUL, May 4 (Yonhap) -- Six more bodies were brought out of the submerged ship that sunk off South Korea's southwest coast last month as divers continued their search Sunday for dozens of people still missing from the ferry accident.
The rescue team comprising military and civilian divers retrieved the six bodies from the fourth floor of the sunken ship early in the morning, bringing the confirmed death toll from the tragic ferry sinking to 242 as of Sunday.
Sixty people still remain missing as the national rescue operations continued for the 19th day after the accident.
The 6,825-ton ferry Sewol capsized and sunk off South Korea's southwestern island of Jindo on April 16, en route to the southern resort island of Jeju.
A total of 174 people, including most of the ship's crew members, were rescued within hours after the ship began to list, but no one has been found alive since the ship sank.
The majority of the victims were teenage students from Danwon High School in the city of Ansan, just south of Seoul. More than 300 students from the school's second-year class were aboard the ship on a field trip to Jeju Island.
Swift currents and high waves in the western sea have hampered the rescue operations as rescue divers tried to access inner compartments of the ship where many victims are believed to be trapped.
Concerns have also risen that some bodies of the missing may have been swept out of the submerged ferry after some belongings of the victims were found in waters far off the shipwreck site.
Meanwhile, a continuing stream of citizens paid their respects to the victims of the accident at memorial altars set up across the nation.
As of Sunday morning, a total of 322,600 citizens have visited the memorial altars that enshrine the portraits and nameplates of the teenage students and other victims from the ferry accident.
Park visits shipwreck site, meets families of victims
2014/05/04 14:37
SEOUL, May 4 (Yonhap) -- President Park Geun-hye visited a southern port Sunday where families of the victims in last month's ferry accident have been camping out, amid search operations to find the bodies of those still missing from the ship sinking.
In a meeting with dozens of relatives of the ferry victims at Paengmok Port, Park said, "I feel indefinitely responsible for the accident itself as well as dealing with the aftermath."
Park then pledged "utmost efforts in the rescue operations to the last minute" while also promising to punish those found to be responsible for the tragic accident.
Park then pledged "utmost efforts in the rescue operations to the last minute" while also promising to punish those found to be responsible for the tragic accident.
The 6,825-ton ferry Sewol capsized and sank off the southwestern island of Jindo on April 16, en route to the southern resort island of Jeju. Of the 476 people aboard the ill-fated vessel, 174 were rescued shortly after the ship began to list, but no one has been found alive since it sank.
A total of 242 people have been confirmed dead as of Sunday as military and civilian divers continued their search for the 19th day to try to bring out bodies of the missing. Around 60 people still remained missing.
Families of the ferry victims have been camping out at Paengmok Port of Jindo Island, awaiting news of the fate of their loved ones.
It was Park's second trip to the shipwreck site after her first visit the day after the accident.
It also came amid growing criticism over the government's botched rescue attempt, as well as the lack of transparency in the ongoing rescue operations.
"You must be in excruciating pain," Park said in the meeting with the relatives. "It is heartrending to imagine how you must be feeling."
She added, "A thorough investigation will be conducted to find those who were responsible and criminally at fault ... and they will be punished severely."
Park also pledged to overhaul the country's safety system during the visit.
She added, "A thorough investigation will be conducted to find those who were responsible and criminally at fault ... and they will be punished severely."
Park also pledged to overhaul the country's safety system during the visit.
President Park Geun-hye talks to Oceans and Fisheries Minister Lee Ju-young during her visit to Paengmok Port as rescue operations continued for the 19th day on May 4, 2014, following the sinking of the ferry Sewol in April. (Yonhap)
Divers suffer growing fatigue from prolonged ferry search
2014/05/02 15:36
JINDO, South Korea, May 2 (Yonhap) -- Divers participating in the search of a sunken ferry face growing health risks from swimming in cold, murky waters for extended stretches, with several suffering from decompression sickness, officials said Friday.
Hundreds of Coast Guard, Navy and civilian divers have battled strong currents and high tides to bring a steady flow of bodies from the upturned ferry Sewol that sank in waters off the southwestern island of Jindo on April 16.
The confirmed death toll has risen to 226 and 76 still remain missing, with many of them believed to be trapped inside the ship.
The search and rescue operation has long since turned into a grueling recovery of corpses as no one has been found alive since the day of the ship's sinking. The work has been becoming even more difficult as divers have had to break through closed cabin doors blocked by debris.
As search efforts continued round-the-clock over the past several days amid growing pressure from grieving families, divers have increasingly suffered exhaustion, with some of them treated for decompression sickness after ascending from depths of over 30 meters.
On Thursday, a 31-year-old civilian diver fell unconscious after diving four times before daybreak to set guideline ropes around the ship, raising concern over the safety of divers.
He received treatment at a hyperbaric oxygen therapy center, but continued to complain of a severe headache and pains in his pelvis, typical symptoms of decompression sickness, according to hospital officials.
Decompression sickness is a painful and potentially dangerous condition that strikes deep sea divers who surface too quickly or stay in cold waters for a long time, causing paralysis, vomiting, and aching pains in joints, the ears and other parts of the body.
"For the first time in my 20 years of a diving career, I was seized by fear that I might not be able to return from underwater," a senior diver told Yonhap News after his colleague fell unconscious.
So far, dozens of divers have received treatment in the oxygen chamber that provides patients with pure oxygen in a sealed chamber that has been pressurized above normal atmospheric pressure.
As the search is expected to last throughout next week, the government disaster response team limited each diver to swimming only once a day to prevent decompression sickness.
The work is still tough as the difference between high and low tide is the highest at the disaster site during this time of year. Currents are stronger by about 40 percent during spring tides compared with the period of neap tides when the difference is the smallest.
"I become exhausted even after one diving a day due to strong currents and deep diving," another civilian diver said. "Figuratively speaking, it's like riding a roller coaster for dozens of minutes or up to one hour."
Families have also raised concern that rescue workers may not be able to retrieve all bodies from the upturned ship as several bodies have recently been retrieved from waters far from the disaster site.
Families have also raised concern that rescue workers may not be able to retrieve all bodies from the upturned ship as several bodies have recently been retrieved from waters far from the disaster site.
One body, believed to be that of a female student, was found about 4 kilometers southeast of the disaster site. The location was in the opposite direction from a site where another body was recovered two days ago.
The government disaster response team has set up multiple nets around the area to prevent bodies from being swept away by strong currents, officials said.
What went wrong ? Overloading for one thing .......
Pilot error for another ... toss in maritime police mishandling search and
rescue operations for a third thing.....
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/South-Korea-ferry-was-routinely-overloaded-5451637.php
South Korea ferry was routinely overloaded
By YOUKYUNG LEE, Associated Press | May 4, 2014 | Updated: May 4, 2014 1:49pm
INCHEON, South Korea (AP) — The doomed ferry Sewol exceeded its cargo limit on 246 trips — nearly every voyage it made in which it reported cargo — in the 13 months before it sank, according to documents that reveal the regulatory failures that allowed passengers by the hundreds to set off on an unsafe vessel. And it may have been more overloaded than ever on its final journey.
One private, industry-connected entity recorded the weights. Another set the weight limit. Neither appears to have had any idea what the other was doing. And they are but two parts of a maritime system that failed passengers April 16 when the ferry sank, leaving more than 300 people missing or dead.
The disaster has exposed enormous safety gaps in South Korea's monitoring of domestic passenger ships, which is in some ways less rigorous than its rules for ships that handle only cargo. Collectively, the country's regulators held more than enough information to conclude that the Sewol was routinely overloaded, but because they did not share that data and were not required to do so, it was practically useless.
The Korean Register of Shipping examined the Sewol early last year as it was being redesigned to handle more passengers. The register slashed the ship's cargo capacity by more than half, to 987 tons, and said the vessel needed to carry more than 2,000 tons of water to stay balanced.
But the register gave its report only to the ship owner, Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd. Neither the coast guard nor the Korean Shipping Association, which regulates and oversees departures and arrivals of domestic passenger ships, appear to have had any knowledge of the new limit before the disaster.
"That's a blind spot in the law," said Lee Kyu-Yeul, professor emeritus at Seoul National University's Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering.
Chonghaejin reported much greater cargo capacity to the shipping association: 3,963 tons, according to a coast guard official in Incheon who had access to the documentation but declined to release it.
Since the redesigned ferry began operating in March 2013, it made nearly 200 round trips — 394 individual voyages — from Incheon port near Seoul to the southern island of Jeju. On 246 of those voyages, the Sewol exceeded the 987-ton limit, according to documents from Incheon port.
The limit may have been exceeded even more frequently than that. In all but one of the other 148 trips, zero cargo was recorded. It is not mandatory for passenger ferries to report cargo to the port operator, which gathers the information to compile statistics and not for safety purposes.
More than 2,000 tons of cargo was reported on 136 of the Sewol's trips, and it topped 3,000 tons 12 times. But the records indicate it never carried as much as it did on its final disastrous voyage: Moon Ki-han, a vice president atUnion Transport Co, the company that loaded the ship, has said it was carrying an estimated 3,608 tons of cargo.
The port operator has no record of the cargo from the Sewol's last voyage. Ferry operators submit that information only after trips are completed. In that respect, the rules for domestic passenger ships are looser than those for cargo-only vessels, which must report cargo before they depart.
Details from the port documents were first reported by the South Korean newspaper Kukmin Daily.
In paperwork filed before the Sewol's last voyage, Capt. Lee Joon-seok reported a much smaller final load than the one Moon described, according to a Coast Guard official who had access to the report but refused to provide a copy to the Associated Press. The paperwork said the Sewol was loaded with 150 cars and 657 tons of cargo.
That would fall within the 987-ton limit, but it's clearly inaccurate: The coast guard has found 180 cars in the water.
An official with the Korea Shipping Association's safety team said it is beyond the association's capacity to determine whether a ship is carrying too much cargo. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't allowed to discuss the Sewol case as it is being investigated.
"What we can do is to see the load line is not submerged," he said. The load line, a marking on the outside of a vessel, indicates whether a ship is overloaded, but it does not show whether it has the sort of balance between cargo and ballast that the register report said was necessary.
"The only person on any vessel who knows the exact cargo safety limit, excluding ballast water, fuel, passengers and others, is the first mate," the official said.
All 15 surviving crew members involved in the ferry's navigation have been arrested, accused of negligence and failing to protect passengers. Prosecutors also detained three employees of the ferry owner who handled cargo, and have raided the offices of the ship owner, the shipping association and the register. Heads of the shipping association and the register offered to resign in the wake of the disaster.
The cause of the sinking remains under investigation, but experts have said that if the ship were severely overloaded, even a small turn could cause it to lose its balance. Tracking data show the ship made a 45-degree turn around the time it began sinking; crew members have reportedly said that something went wrong with the steering as they attempted a much less severe turn.
Some experts say the Sewol never should have been cleared to operate after last year's redesign because the owner would not be able to make money under the register's new cargo limits.
The ferry operator "was trying to make a profit by overloading cargos," said Kim Gil-soo, a professor at Korea Maritime and Ocean University in Busan, "and public agencies that should have monitored did not monitor that."
According to South Korean law, the association may report violations to either the coast guard or the state-run port operator, but both entities said they were never told of excessive cargo on the Sewol. The shipping association has refused to say how often it has reported violations.
A coast guard official said the shipping association should have reported any excessive cargo to the operator of Incheon port, where the Sewol last departed. An official with the port operator says it is the coast guard that should have been alerted. The coast guard official spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to speak about matters under investigation; the port official refused to provide his name.
South Korea, unlike many other countries, relies on a private industry-affiliated body to determine whether a ship is safe to sail. The shipping association, whose members are shipping companies and ship operators, took on that responsibility in 1973, following a 1970 sinking in which about 320 people died.
Captains submit paperwork to the association indicating how much cargo is on board as well as crew and passengers.
The shipping association, which also oversees crew education, is partly government-funded, but its biggest business is selling insurance to its members.
Its website says about 75 percent of its 110 billion won ($107 million) budget for 2014 was allocated to its insurance department. The budget for the department dealing with domestic passenger ship safety was 7.4 billion won ($7.2 million). The association has 71 safety inspectors at 13 South Korean ports and its headquarters.
Many of the association's high-level officials come from the Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries, which some say makes it tough for the ministry to scrutinize the group. Ministry officials may be reluctant to question association officials who are former senior public servants, or even their former bosses.
The register, which made the cargo limit evaluation, also is a private entity.
In Europe, North America and Japan, regulation is generally done by public bodies such as the U.S. Coast Guardand the U.K.'s Maritime and Coastal Agency. In Japan, the government checks ships once a year, and conducts unannounced inspections of crew qualification and emergency training.
At the same time, it's common for governments to rely on ship captains to report their loads accurately. It would be virtually impossible to check every boat, experts say.
Since the Sewol disaster, the oceans ministry has been considering taking the job of overseeing passenger-ship safety away from the shipping association, ministry official Kwon Jun-young said. Kwon said they are discussing which agency or agencies should take up on the job.
___
Associated Press writers Jung-yoon Choi in Seoul, Sylvia Hui in London and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.
http://theinsidekorea.com/2014/04/ferry-disaster-ferry-investigation-targets-maritime-police/
Good evening Fred, Good yet depressing updates. The ferry stories are heartbreaking and you can't get much more depressing than Fukushima, Hanford and WIPP. Gerald Celente's prediction of economic collapse was a bright spot, at least not depressing and interesting. I hope you had a great weekend
ReplyDeleteGood evening to you as well - hope you had a fine weekend..... the rain took a break ( there were some intermittent showers here ) for the most part , cooler today than yesterday !
DeleteThe news is what the news is unfortunately ! Looks like Kiev is regrouping and rethinking how to proceed next with those pesky Federalists that won't back down from Kiev thuggery.
Watching Pittsburgh Pens vs NY Rangers - tight , very physical game , zero zero as I'm typing mid second period ( Edit - Penguins just scored ) ! Fukushima / WIPP and Hanford barely register in US mass media ( or media for the masses ) , so someone has to keep these situations alive !
Celente's view on an economic collapse is interesting - but how would you know whether economies have collapsed when most of the statistical data is fraudulent ? How would that be reflected in stock or bond markets when both are managed and manipulated by various Central Banks ? And we know what happens with gold and silver .....Makes we wonder if an economy falls in the global forest ( and know one pays attention ) , does the crash still make a sound ?
Enjoy your evening !