Ferry sinking in South Korea with 476 on board

Mostly School Children. Just heartbreaking. Huge rescue effort underway and sure hope for it's success.

CNN Update:

South Korean students await rescue aboard sinking passenger ship - CNN.com

Update looks promising and hopeful.

368 reported rescued at this point.

This is a tragic tragic thing to happen. Hopefully they can rescue almost everyone.

Numbers have changed and the earlier numbers rescued have gone way down. Now the South Korean officials only reporting 164 rescued. There are so many boats rescuing may be hard for anyone to know. But I'm afraid beyond those rescued to this point, not a lot of hope for additional survivors. Many of the greatest death tolls ever on the seas have been Ferry's. While all lives are precious, the thought of this being school children is the worst. We were both in a meeting and had to take a break and long lunch. We think of the kids at the orphanage where we were Saturday and Belle thinks of the ones she taught and I can only imagine how this hits every parent.

Has anyone heard the cause? I heard that the ship rolled over about 2 hours after the first May Day. I also heard one survivor had said that the passengers were advised to stay where they were, which is thought to have caused many to be trapped below deck.

Reports say the ship hit a underwater rock/ reef.
I have also read that there was a blackout after the instruction so they could not give further information to the passengers later on..

From CNN:

It most likely struck something in the water, said Peter Boynton, a retired U.S. Coast Guard captain. "The speed with which this ferry began to list and then roll over on its side suggests significant damage, most likely causing major flooding that would cause a vessel of this size -- almost 500 feet long -- to quickly roll onto its side. That's very likely the result of significant damage," he said.

Some passengers reported hearing a loud bang before the ship began sinking. That could be from cargo shifting or "some other internal damage," Boynton told CNN's "New Day." "But it does sound, from initial reports, it was more likely that something was struck."

On a well travelled route, amazing if underwater "rock" maybe some hostile neighbour playing war games with their sub.
Happened here on the West coast, Chilean sub collided with local sail boat, denied all liability.

That was my thinking as well. My first thought was they hit a small mine planted by the NK Navy.

I'm sure there will be a thorough investigation. Ironic we were recently debating steel vs. FRP in a collision and one of the points was that there were many issues other than just material. Ferries have been notorious for such tragedies. As I understand it in addition to the humans, there were many cars and also some containers on board. Obviously all news at this point is suspect and the truth still to be known only in the future.

The only thing more heartbreaking than the news stories is to read some of the texts that were sent as it was all happening.

Further updates:-

Details of Ferry Tragedy Released | Shipwreck Log

While the cause is still to be determined some of the theories floated involved fog in the area which delayed them leaving by 2 hours supposedly and that perhaps that led them to try to speed up to make up that time and/or due to the fog they got out of the channel and ran aground. However, the South Korean Oceans and Fisheries Ministry said "there was no huge difference between their plan and the actual track chart". What is a huge difference vs. a disastrous small difference I don't know.

I think everything at this point is just a guess. Most of the questions one would ask in that regard haven't been pursued or reported publicly. For instance, there is speculation as to the size of the opening or area of damage. I would have thought as part of the rescue effort divers would have been all around the vessel and would have seen the extent of any exterior damage by now. The Captain is alive and has been interviewed to the point of saying "I'm sorry" but I would certainly think he should at least been saying what it was like from his position to both aid the divers trying to rescue and to give more insight into possible causes. And the President of the company that owns the vessel also only says, "I'm sorry" while he supposedly tried to venture out to the sunken ferry but was hospitalized after collapsing from shock on the way.

There were 46 lifeboats on the boat but apparently only one launched. The lack of any evacuation effort and, in fact, telling people to stay still certainly led to more lives lost than would appear had to be. There has been discussion of why the Captain may have told them that but no word on it from the Captain or authorities.

One other curious thing was that there was a US ship near which was asked to dispatch helicopters but the South Korean government did not ask the ship to come assist in spite of the capabilities of the ship and crew.

Even the information which has come from the government officials just on passengers rescued has turned out often to be very poor and later contradicted.

In some ways this seems way too much like the Concordia except obviously made far worse by the number of children/students involved and by a death toll that may be as much as ten times that of the Concordia.

My frustration with the information isn't really important in the scheme of things but I can only imagine the frustration of the parents as they struggle to find out anything they can about their kids who are probably lost but for whom they are holding out hope that they could be in an air pocket.

So, I'm thinking where are the life boats? No life boats or rafts in the water. I started looking over all the pictures again, till I found them;
Would they (rafts) been any help or hinderance in an event like this?

Personally, I hate that type of life raft on a passenger vessel. Because of the cost of repacking them, the captain may be slow to give the order to start preparing them. I'm sure he would have been punished had he loaded everyone into them and the ship didnt sink. With life boats, the captain could have ordered women and children into them at the first sign of trouble, and if there wasn't a problem, they just get out. Those inflatable rafts have no place on a ferry.

So, some captain may make a decision to use or not use the rafts. That's almost scary.
I'm feared this captain may be in some hot water anyway. I've read the passengers were told to stay below. Never heard about an abandon ship message getting to them.

What I'm reading is that the order over the PA system was to say in place. I can't imagine an emergency at sea where that's the recommended course of action. Assuming there are no formal muster stations, they still should have been told to grab a PDF and report on deck (from where the crew would direct them). I'm now reading that the ferry was not following its normal course, and the Captain is saying he's "ashamed". That seems like an odd reaction unless he knows he did something wrong, unless it's a cultural reaction. But I always have to wonder when a captain makes it off his ship while passengers are left trapped. I'm also reading that parents have recieved Texts from their trapped teens. How horribly sad this whole thing is.

Hi,

I am hoping this is s typo and not an indication that Adobe has entered the LSA Arena.

The auto correct on my phone changes PFD to PDF too.