South Korean Ferry Evacuation Efforts Plagued By Confusion

Nearly half an hour after the South Korean ferry started to tilt, some of the crew were still struggling for direction on how to handle the evacuation.

"If this ferry evacuates passengers, will they be rescued right away?" a crew member asked, according to a transcript released Sunday. In response, an official with the Jindo Vessel Traffic Services Center (VTS) said, "The rescue of human lives from the Sewol ferry ... the captain should make his own decision and evacuate them. We don't know the situation very well."

The newly released transcript highlights the level of confusion that plagued evacuation efforts on that fateful Wednesday morning when the Sewol ferry carrying 476 passengers, many of them high school students, tipped over off the southern coast near Jindo, South Korea Read more...