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Korea Ferry Disaster Captain in Custody, Criminal Charges. 3d Mate on Helm During Sinking. Timeline Pictures…
Saturday, April 19, 2014 0:19
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Lee Joon Seok faces fives charges, including negligence leading to sinking the ship, abandoning the ship, causing bodily injury resulting in death and not seeking rescue from nearby ships, the news agency Yonhap reported, citing prosecutors and police.
The cause of the accident still isn’t known. But a South Korean prosecutor said Lee wasn’t in the steering room when the ferry started to sink. A third mate was at the helm.
A South Korean captain defended his order to delay the evacuation of his sinking ferry, CNN affiliate YTN reported early Saturday.
The news of Lee Joon Seok’s arrest in connection with the sinking that left at least 29 people dead and more than 270 missing came as divers made their way to the third deck inside the wreckage where they found three bodies, according to the South Korean coast guard.
The divers wern’t able to recover the three bodies from a compartment, the coast guard said. Another 40 dives are planned for Saturday in an attempt to get inside the ferry, the coast guards’ Koh Myung Seok told reporters.
Lee has been charged with abandoning his boat, negligence, causing bodily injury, not seeking rescue from other ships, and violating “seamen’s law,” state media reported, citing prosecutors and police
The charges against Lee appear to shed some light on what authorities have focused on in their efforts to find out what happened to the ferry making its way Wednesday from Incheon to the resort island of Jeju. It sank in frigid waters 20 kilometers (roughly 12 miles) off the coast of South Korea’s southern peninsula.
