And if you look at the picture of Captain Lee stepping off of his vessel onto a rescue craft, you'll see right next to him lines and lines of unopened life rafts that had never even been thrown into the water. That means they had a capacity for over 1,100 people in the life rafts. This ship had 44 lifeboats on the top deck of the vessel, each one of which could carry 25 passengers. But after that, it was clear, the sinking of the ship is then inevitable and that became the time to get everybody off the ship.īLOCK: And the captain has said, in his defense, that he was concerned about passengers being in very cold water with a very fast current, that he thought that it would be more dangerous there. At least during 10 of those minutes, he might have had a question as to whether or not the vessel was going to continue to list. There was only 30 minutes of time between when the ship first started listing over to the portside to when the list had increased to 50 degrees. SULLIVAN: Well, there were some severe errors in judgment made, there's no question about it. Is it unimaginable to you what happened here? Professor Sullivan, thanks for being with us.īLOCK: President Park today called it unimaginable, both legally and morally, that in her words, the crew escaped first, abandoning the passengers. He teaches maritime law at the Florida Coastal School of Law. To talk more about the law and codes of maritime conduct that could apply here, I'm joined by Rod Sullivan. They face charges, including for the captain, negligence of duty and violation of maritime law. The captain and several crew members who were rescued have been arrested.
And today, the President of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, called the actions of the captain and crew who deserted the vessel unforgivable, murderous behavior. The death toll now stands at 87 with some 215 more missing, many of them high school students. Divers continue to recover more bodies from the South Korean ferry that sank last week. From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
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