Prosecutors in South Korea have asked a court to issue an arrest warrant for the captain of the ferry that sank on Wednesday, officials say.<\/p>\n
It was earlier revealed that a junior officer – and not the captain – was at the helm of the ferry when it capsized.<\/p>\n
Efforts to find the 268 people still missing have been hampered by low visibility and strong currents.<\/p>\n
Twenty-eight people are now known to have died in the disaster, with 179 people rescued.<\/p>\n
Coast guard officials said on Friday two divers managed to enter the cargo bay of the vessel, but could not identify or rescue anyone due to items obstructing the way.<\/p>\n
Wrong manoeuvre?<\/strong><\/p>\n The vessel – named Sewol – had been travelling from Incheon, in the north-west, to the southern resort island of Jeju. It capsized and sank within a period of two hours, officials said.<\/p>\n Some 350 of those on board were students from Danwon High School in Ansan, a suburb of Seoul, who were on an outing when the ferry sank.<\/p>\n Investigations are focusing on the sharp turn the vessel took before it started listing and whether an evacuation order by the captain could have saved lives.<\/p>\n Some experts believe such a tight turn could have dislodged heavy cargo and destabilised the vessel, while others suggest it could have been caused by a collision with a rock.<\/p>\n In addition to the captain, arrest warrants are also being sought for two other crew members, reports say.<\/p>\n “The joint investigation team of police and prosecutors asked for warrants to arrest three crew, including the captain,” a coast guard official in Makpo told AFP.<\/p>\n Captain Lee Joon-seok, who has already been quizzed by police, was shown on television on Thursday apologising to the victims and their relatives.<\/p>\n “I am really sorry and deeply ashamed. I don’t know what to say,” he said.<\/p>\n Details of the charges have not yet been made public.<\/p>\n Challenging conditions<\/strong><\/p>\n The vice principal of Danwon High School, who was rescued from the ferry, was found dead on nearby Jindo island on Friday.<\/p>\n Kang Min-Kyu, 52, had been missing since Thursday and was discovered hanging from a tree near the gym on Jindo island – where many of the relatives of missing passengers have been staying.<\/p>\n Amid a major search and rescue operation, officials say air has been injected into the ship to help any people trapped inside – though officials have said that survivors are unlikely – and to help refloat the vessel.<\/p>\n Three salvage cranes have reached the site, which officials say may be used to raise the ship or move it to another area with weaker currents.<\/p>\n But challenging conditions have hampered the search for a third consecutive day.<\/p>\n “Visibility is almost non-existent. You can hardly see your hand in front of your face,” one diver told AFP news agency after returning from a trip.<\/p>\n State prosecutor Park Jae-Eok earlier told journalists that the third officer was in command of steering the ship when the accident took place.<\/p>\n “Though surviving crews have different testimonies about the situation, we’ve been investigating the captain as he was suspected to leave the steering room for an unknown reason,” Mr Park added.<\/p>\n But former ferry Captain Malcolm Shakesby told the BBC this was not uncommon.<\/p>\n “Depending on whether or not is was in pilotage waters, then yes, the master would be expected to be on the bridge, but if it wasn’t in pilotage waters it’s a common practice for one of the officers to be doing navigation,” he said.<\/p>\n Survivors have accused the crew of instructing them to remain where they were rather than evacuate the ship.<\/p>\n Messages and phone calls from those inside painted a picture of people trapped in crowded corridors, unable to escape the severely-listing ferry.<\/p>\n Their relatives, who have endured a long wait for news, released a statement on Friday calling for more urgent action.<\/p>\n “Our children would be shouting for help in the freezing water… Please help us save our children,” a representative of the families said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prosecutors in South Korea have asked a court to issue an arrest warrant for the captain of the ferry that sank on Wednesday, officials say. It was earlier revealed that a junior officer – and not the captain – was at the helm of the ferry when it capsized. Efforts to find the 268 people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-14258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}