Sewol Ferry

Sewol Ferry

 



http://edition.cnn.com

On April 16, 2014, it has been 26 days after the Sewol ferry tragedy. There were a total of 476 people on the Sewol ferry but only 172 people were rescued, which is not even half of the total passengers. There were 275 confirmed dead and 29 people still missing. Probably, they were trapped on the sinking ferry and were still under the Sewol until now. Many families are still hoping that their children will be found and that they are waiting for them to comeback.




This tragedy happened because of greed and selfishness of people. The owner of the ship took the opportunity to get more money from the insurance company. The captain and his crews thought only of saving themselves and not the lives of the hundreds students depending upon them.



http://www.bbc.com/

One professional have suggested that maybe the reason why the captain and crews did not implement immediate action for abandoning the ship is to act as if the tragedy is unpredictable although they knew that the ship was overloaded. In that case, the insurance company will shoulder all the damages and financial obligations to the passengers. But if they were able to respond immediately, this might prove that they were aware of the coming tragedy and the insurance company will just pay less or not at all. So the experts are guessing that there might be an order from the company owner to make the passengers leave the ship as late as possible to show that the accident was unpredictable. So the captain’s order of evacuations is late to show that the accident happened suddenly and that they weren’t able to manage the passengers faster. This shows that the company owner and captain indirectly killed more than 275 people just to collect more money from the insurance company.

I am grieved by the tragedy because I am a student too. The field trip that is meant to be a wonderful experience was replaced by a traumatic incident. As we analyze the tragedy and try to figure out what went wrong, our conclusion leads us back to the shipping company which is not following safety precautions regarding overloading of ships, and to the captain and crews’ incompetence to respond to an emergency. If there is an immediate order for evacuation, there might be more survivors and fewer casualties. However, we cannot bring back the past. We can only learn life lessons that might help us in the future. But this does not mean that those who are responsible will not be held accountable. They should also suffer the consequences of their wrong action according to the law. Justice might lessen the pain of the parents who lost their children.

Work Cited
Jo, Hyunho. "미디어오늘 : 신상철 “해경청장 구조실패…미필적 고의 살인 혐의” 고발장." 신상철 “해경청장 구조실패…미필적 고의 살인 혐의” 고발장. Mediatoday, 14 May 2014. Web. 17 May 2014.
Park, Genegwan. "해양·조선 전문가 신상철 前 서프라이즈 대표가 분석하는 '세월호 침몰'" 해양·조선 전문가 신상철 前 서프라이즈 대표가 분석하는 '세월호 침몰' 2 May 2014. Web. 17 May 2014. 
"Sewol Ferry Recovery Suspended Again." - Story. 12 May 2014. Web. 17 May 2014.