This disaster remains as one of the biggest ferry disasters in South korea. On April 16,2014 the South Korean ferry sewol carrying 476 passengers including 325 passenger students sank on her way to Jeju Island from Incheon. That should had been a normal routine journey from Incheon to Jeju island which the ferry did it twice a week,if the disaster would not have happened. But unfortunately very few of them survived.In all 295 passengers died in the accident out of which 246 were secondary school students and many bodies went missing.
There are several plausible reasons for this mishappen. It is said that the captain and the crew members of the ferry loaded almost twice the legal limit of the cargo and did not secure them properly. In order to hide their overloading they drained the ballast water excessively and doing this reduces the ferries ability to bring balance back after a quick turn.Thats why a Sharp turn shifted the thousand tons of cargo and nearly two hundred cars that were inside and the ferry started learning to one side and it was soon tilting at more than five degrees, a critical threshold and a point of no return. Two hours later at 8:49 am the sewol started to sink. It is also Said that the inexpirenced mate of captain, who has just six months of experience took a turn too quickly and the ferry leaned to one side and capsized. Besides this there were several factors influencing the captain and crew members behaviour. Before this incident the coastal line of business in South korea was very small and loosely regulated. Usually The captain works under at least two competing pressure working for maximum profit and minimum working load.Thus the captain chose a short but a risky route to support his motive and left only a six month experienced third mate alone in a steering house while he was taking rest .
The water started flooding through various openings high up in the structure. The captain and the crew members instead of saving thr life of passengers , they abandoned the ferry after ordering them to remain in their cabins. There were so many people involved in this particular accident supporting their own selfish motives and handling pressure.
The persons guilty for this incident were punished and some are still in prison. But with just following the guidelines this incident would have been prevented. The student victims made video message with their phones before the ship sank and it's heart touching.
