Officials say that an arrest warrant for the ferry's captain is now being requested from the court by prosecutors. It was revealed that a junior officer, and not the captain, was at the helm when it sank off the coast of South Korea. The Sewol was carrying 476 passengers and crew aboard when it capsized on Wednesday. The ferry was on a journey from the port of Incheon to the southern holiday island of Jeju. 179 people were rescued soon after Wednesday's incident and as of Friday morning, 268 are still missing and 28 deaths have already been confirmed according to the South Korean coastguard.
The cause of the sinking is still unknown but South Korean prosecutor said that a third mate, and not the captain,Lee Joon Suk, was at the steering room when the ferry started to capsize. The captain's whereabouts during the accident remains unclear. The captain was one of the 179 that was rescued soon after Wednesday's sinking. Two other crew members also face arrest, as stated by a spokesperson for the joint prosecutors and police.
After the accident, some analysts hypothesized that the ferry might have deviated from its course and struck an object. The South Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said that they approved the ferry's route and there was no significant drifting from the intended course.However, Kim Soo Hyeon, chief of South Korea's Yellow Sea Maritime Police Agency, later said the ship apparently deviated from its planned route but did not appear to have hit an object or rock.
The victims' families are consumed with grief, anger, worry and fear. They are disgusted with the captain's lack of explanation and responsibility and urge the rescuers to increase the pace and efforts of the rescue. Another tragedy was added to the Sewol sinking when the vice-principal of a South Korean high school committed suicide. Kang Min-gyu, 52, had been missing since Thursday. He appeared to have hanged himself with his belt from a tree outside a gym in the port city of Jindo where relatives of the people missing on the ship, mostly children from the school, were gathered.
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