South Korean rescue workers operate near floats where capsized passenger ship Sewol sank last Wednesday, in the sea off Jindo
The first alarm from a sinking South Korean ferry was raised in a phone call from a child on board to a fire station at 8.52 am on the morning the boat capsized, three minutes after the vessel made its fateful last turn. (Death toll in South Korea ferry disaster crosses 100)
That call was forwarded to the coastguard two minutes later and was followed by about 20 others to the fire brigade, a fire station officer told Reuters. (Korean gym is a hothouse of grief for relatives of ferry missing)
The first call as the ferry began sinking on Wednesday was from a boy whose voice was shaking and sounded urgent, a fire officer told MBC TV. It took a while to identify the ship as the Sewol because he was flustered.
The fire station official asked him to switch the phone to the captain, and the boy replied: "Do you mean teacher?"
The pronunciation of the words for "captain" and "teacher" is similar in Korean.
The South Korean government released a timeline of the ferry's last minutes while it was still stable and afloat. (In sad twist on proud tradition, captains let others go down)
The Sewol made its scheduled turn en route to the holiday island of Jeju off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula at 8.49 a.m. and started listing within a minute. By 8.55 a.m. it was drifting back on itself and heeling to port.
The Sewol was on a routine trip south from the port of Incheon to sub-tropical Jeju. (Ferry pilot was negotiating treacherous waterway for first time, prosecutors say)
Of the 476 passengers and crew on board, 339 were children and teachers on a high school outing. Only 174 people have been rescued and the remainder are all presumed to have drowned.
That call was forwarded to the coastguard two minutes later and was followed by about 20 others to the fire brigade, a fire station officer told Reuters. (Korean gym is a hothouse of grief for relatives of ferry missing)
The first call as the ferry began sinking on Wednesday was from a boy whose voice was shaking and sounded urgent, a fire officer told MBC TV. It took a while to identify the ship as the Sewol because he was flustered.
The fire station official asked him to switch the phone to the captain, and the boy replied: "Do you mean teacher?"
The pronunciation of the words for "captain" and "teacher" is similar in Korean.
The South Korean government released a timeline of the ferry's last minutes while it was still stable and afloat. (In sad twist on proud tradition, captains let others go down)
The Sewol made its scheduled turn en route to the holiday island of Jeju off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula at 8.49 a.m. and started listing within a minute. By 8.55 a.m. it was drifting back on itself and heeling to port.
The Sewol was on a routine trip south from the port of Incheon to sub-tropical Jeju. (Ferry pilot was negotiating treacherous waterway for first time, prosecutors say)
Of the 476 passengers and crew on board, 339 were children and teachers on a high school outing. Only 174 people have been rescued and the remainder are all presumed to have drowned.
© Thomson Reuters 2014
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