Rotten Mango - #261: The Sewol Ferry Tragedy - Coward Captain Left 350 Students To Die In A Sinking Ship

Episode Date: May 18, 2023

In that dark and gloomy room, the rescuers stumbled upon two students who had sought refuge together. Maybe they even held hands or offered comforting words. There's some debate about their relationship status - some say they were dating, while others claim they barely knew each other. But one thing's for sure: when faced with their last moments, they didn't want to face it alone. They cleverly tied their life jacket strings together, refusing to be separated as the room flooded with water. Let's talk about the heart-wrenching Sewol Ferry tragedy in South Korea. It shattered the nation and claimed the lives of over 300 people. But the aftermath was just as crazy. The president was impeached, the prime minister resigned, a billionaire was suspiciously found dead, and the vice principal of a high school was found dead - hanging from a tree.  Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if comparing car insurance rates was as easy as putting on your favorite podcast? With Progressive, it is. Just visit the Progressive website to quote with all the coverage you want. You'll see Progressive's direct rate, then their tool will provide options from other companies so you can compare. All you need to do is choose the rate and coverage you like. Quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 29 million drivers who trust progressive. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates comparison rates not available

in all states or situations. Price is very based on how you buy. Betta Bing Betta Bing This is going to be a long one and it's going to be a tough one. We're talking about this hair art tragedy, the sinking of this hair art boat. Now two sixteen year old students from Tanwan High School. They made headlines. There were some rumors that they were dating.

There were some rumors that said, no, they were just close friends. But most of the students that knew both of them personally said, they barely knew each other. I don't even think that they had a class together. Most kids said, that was the extent of their interaction, just passing each other in the hallways. Yet the two of them found each other alone in a room in a boat terrified. I mean, they're watching the water starting to pool

on the ground and they didn't know what to do. I'm sure they were frantic. I'm sure that there were a lot of things going on in their minds. I'm sure that they were trying to comfort each other. But eventually everything goes black. A civilian diver would later find both their bodies alone in that room, and their life jacket cords were still tied together. He remembers how he had to separate them because he physically couldn't bring up two bodies at once, and he recognized that in their last moments,

maybe these two kids knew each other, maybe they didn't, but in their last moments, they didn't wanna be alone. So moments, they didn't want to be alone. So they tied the strings of their life jackets together till the very end. And he said, you know, I started crying thinking that I didn't want to separate them. But I had to. He said it was one of the hardest rescue dives that he had ever endured in his entire life.

He would never forget some of the stuff that was seen. Other students from the same high school, Tanuan High School, faced similar fates. A female student was seen throwing a chair at a window, a glass window, and she's hurling this chair with as much force as she can muster. She would go as far back as she could, and then she would throw it with all all of her strength and it would just clunk onto the window and fall back down. She wasn't angry but there was just pure desperation in her eyes. She could see on the very other side of this window where rescuers. They saw her, she saw them, and they did nothing

but stare at her. What? Why? We're gonna get into it. I mean this rescue, I don't even think you can call it a rescue. She realized that these people, these rescuers, they're not here to save her. All the people that she thought would be responsible for her safety, the captain of the boat, the rescue teams from the Korean National Coast Guard, they all abandoned her. They were watching her through the window and it was very clear to her in her last moments that she was being left to die.

Imagine these are the very last realizations that you have in your life. April 16th, 2014. This hewar fairy capsized off the coast of South Korea. There were 476 passengers. Most of them were high school students around the age of 16 years old from the same high school. They were on their way to Jeju Island when their boat started sinking on one side.

And you know, when a giant boat that carries 500 passengers, it's when it starts sinking, it's not something that goes unnoticed, nor is it something that happens very quickly. Soon, nearby boats and vessels and even countries start giving out lending helping hands. The Japanese co-scarred asked if South Korea required assistance because they were right there. The US Navy had a massive vessel stationed nearby and offered to rush to the scene to help with rescue efforts.

South Korea denied all of their requests. They told news outlets that they had everything under control, that they were operating a full-scale rescue operation and that majority of the passengers had already been rescued off the boat and they're being rushed to safety. Wow. South Korea told the world, hey guys, these are our kids and we're going to do everything to save our kids. But that could not have been further from the truth. This heiwafari tragedy in South Korea would lead to the deaths of over 250 high school students. Over 300 lives in total, it would lead to the president being impeached, the prime minister resigning, the Korean

Coast Guard being disbanded, multiple high profile arrests, a billionaire suspicious suicide, a helicopter crash, hunger strikes, and a vice principal of a high school found hanging from a tree in the woods dead. So let's get into the tragedy. As always, Fulsha notes are available at rottonminglepodcast.com. There is a South Korea news outlet called newsstoppa, which you're like, I've never heard of this. I've heard of like SPS and NBC. Newsstoppa worked closely with the victim's families and their attorneys from the get-go.

They had so much information on this tragedy that was being suppressed by mainstream news. They were the only ones that were standing up when everyone was else was silent. It's estimated and kind of surmised that without them, most of the evidence, most of these testimonies would have been completely lost. They would have never been used. So that was my primary source because they work directly with the families to get the truth out there. And you know, this isn't

just a tragedy. It's a full scale cover-up with the president, the most powerful person in that country working with the media. So please go show support to new stop if you can. And with that being said, let's get into it. The parents of Tanwan High School are getting bombarded with calls. Phone calls, text messages, voice memos, pictures are being sent to them. And it was like a parent's worst nightmare. Think about your 16 year old kid, a board of boat on a school field trip, and they're sending you cryptic text messages. Like, mom, I'm sending you this because I'm scared I might not be able to say it later. But I love you. You're like, what's going on? You're like on a field trip.

Another kid sent. Hope we can meet again alive. Another student said, if I've wronged any of you guys, please forgive me. The parents start freaking out, but they're told by their kids that, hey, mom, dad, the boat is sinking, but rescue efforts are on their way. I think everyone's got it under control. They told us to stay in our cabins and put on our life jackets. Many parents told their kids, okay, we'll stick with your friends. Don't be alone, don't wander out alone, and good, good, that's good. They have everything under control. Just keep calm and do what they say.

Do what they say. If you listen to them, everything will be okay. These words will haunt the parents forever. A lot of them couldn't even face living with the guilt because so many children would die from listening to what they said, from listening to what the captain told them to do. The very sank April 16th of 2014,

but the story starts the day before on April 15th of 2014. So the students at Tanwan High School, this is like their annual trip to Tiju Island. They considered it a ride of passage, like a tradition for everyone. Every single high school student looks, it's the sophomore class. They're so excited for this,

because for one, their parents aren't going to be there. It's just their class and a couple of teachers. And I mean, just imagine the adrenaline and all this planning that goes into something like this. Any inconvenience that day that would have otherwise bothered the crap out of them, it didn't bother them anymore. I mean, they were waiting in line for hours at the port of Incheon, which is also where the international airport is. But Tidu Island is like the Hawaii of South Korea and in turn is actually on the northern side of South Korea and they would get on a boat go all the way down the left coast of South Korea

and then get into the ocean the yellow sea a little bit and then they'll hit a tiny little island called Tijoo Island. It is the biggest destination spot for South Koreans it's beautiful it's like a cultural mecca there's so much, just there's a lot of fun stuff to do there. So these kids are like, yes, Jeju Island. Even when their ferry is delayed for two and a half hours because of foggy conditions, they're like, that's fine. Are you kidding? Nothing is going to ruin this trip. This is the best trip of my life. It's a 300 mile trip by ferry. It takes 14 hours. But thankfully they would be going down the coast of Korea most of the time the left side of the coast

So they're gonna have cell service, you know And it was outfitted like a cruise ship meaning that there's dorm rooms with bunk beds There's communal showers a convenience store a cafeteria, you know, which for high schoolers, this sounds like a blast. Because they had cell service, a lot of them were able to reach out to their families and those very phones would later document some of their last moments on board. There were 476 people on board the ferry, including the crew. Now, they board the ferry at 9pm. They were supposed to board two and a half hours earlier, but like I said, a delay. It's not that bad.

I mean, the ferry is filled with 325 high school students, 14 teachers, 29 crew members, and about 100 or so other passengers. So these passengers are going to Jeju either on their own for vacation, or there were a lot of truck drivers. So they go and they get cargo off from this same boat, and they drive it around Tegu, then they get their truck back onto the boat and come back to Seoul, and it's like a back and forth, right?

So it sounds like a huge boat. Oh yeah, it's a massive boat. So you're saying there's not only people, but also like vehicles on there. Oh, so many vehicles, and it's actually a cargo ship This is a cargo ship that loads on passengers on the side The Taylor fairy if you want to get technical is 75% profits from cargo movement and 25% profits from carrying of passengers

Yeah, like a cruise ship. Yes it's massive. So I mean a lot of these truck drivers were not very excited that they got on to the ferry with a bunch of high schoolers but these same truck drivers would help try and save a lot of these students later. So it's not like the high school bought out the entire ferry nor was it a ferry that belonged to the school. There's a lot of people on here. So all 476 people including including the crew, they bored the fairy and they start their journey. Now the night of the 15th was pretty calm and nothing climactic happens, which is good. Dinner served, there's fireworks that are launched from the deck.

At night, the passengers all go to sleep in their cabins. Now the high school was pretty good about booking rooms on one level for all of the boy students and then for the girl students upstairs, right? So they had different levels. They all got to sleep around 11-ish. And the next morning, at around 11 a.m., they should be arriving in Tiju Island. So it's like you go to sleep, you wake up,

you have breakfast and 11 a.m., you're at Tiju. They're so excited for this. Now 7 30 a.m. you're at Tidu. They're so excited for this. Now 7 30 a.m. is when everything starts to slowly unravel. Hellsman Cho and Third Mate Park. So these are two of the people that are going to be steering the boat now. They take over for the shift so the overnight crew can go into their cabins and take a nap or go to sleep. The helmsman is the person who's going to be steering and driving the ship if you will. So Helmsman Cho the person who's going to be steering and driving the ship, if you will. So Helmsman Cho, he's at the bridge, which is basically like the cockpit of the boat.

And he's, you know, doing all these commands, and the captain was off duty in his room. Okay, so the bridge is the driving room. Yes. Okay. Now, 30 minutes later, around 8 a.m., breakfast is served in the cafeteria for all the passengers, the crew, and anybody else. 8.20 a.m., autopilot is switched off to manual steering. Autopilot off manual steering on. Just 7 minutes later, this hair wire is sailing through the Mango channel. Now the Mango channel is very pertinent to this story.

There are other routes to take to get to Jeju without going through this particular channel. Now the Mangle channel is very pertinent to this story. There are other routes to take to get to Jeju without going through this particular channel. I mean, it really only saves like seven miles off of your trip, but this channel is, it's not some sort of urban legend where ships go missing and it's like a terrifying place. It is a commonly used route, but it's not calm. It's not that safe. It's a little unpredictable, it is actually has one of the most rapid and unpredictable currents in the Korean peninsula. It's got these title shifts,

meaning that you have to be super, super careful when you're passing through this channel. Some areas of the channel have rock hazards, some random areas have shallow waters, but Sehwore was traveling through a part where it was pretty calm, conditions are relatively calm. Even CCTV footage shows kids and truck drivers socializing on deck, finishing up their breakfast. Most of the kids were still asleep in their cabins if I'm being honest, because you know, it's very early. As of 8.40 am, everything is going well. Students are busy, passengers are busy avoiding the students. Crew members are busy working.

Within nine minutes, everything would change. 8.49am, two crew members that were in charge of steering the ship decide to manually steer the ship 15 degrees to the left. Which is a well-known fact to all crew members aboard this Hewar that they cannot steer this particular vessel more than five degrees in any direction, mainly because of the amount of cargo it was holding. So why did this Hewar fairy even start to sing? This Hewar was known, like I said, to be a cargo ship. 25% of their profits were just from passengers. So being incredibly irresponsible and greedy,

they would almost every single time load way more cargo than was permitted than was legally allowed. It caused massive dangerous conditions on the boat, and when they made this sharp turn, which is supposed to only be five degrees to the left, they went 15 degrees degrees and none of this cargo, none of these cars, they had almost 200 vehicles on this cargo ship, all of them slammed to the left because none of them are being tied down. Side note, when you

read official reports, it'll read that the boat was listing 30 degrees to port. Now what that means, and this is from online research, I'm not like a boat girl, I'm actually terrified of cruises, but listing, when a boat is listing, it means that it's leaning to the left, not going to the left, but leaning to the left. When it says listing to port, it means to the left. When it says listing to star boat, it means listing to the right. And you say listing how much degree? 30 degrees.

30 degrees. That's a lot. 30 degrees. Yeah. So 90 degrees is... It's flat. Like bunk. Bunk sideways. 30 degrees is like half. Not half, but like one third

Which is crazy massive ship. Yeah, but and not to confuse it with trimming. Okay, just a little quick I guess boat lesson, but trimming is when the ship tips forward or backward and then Rolling is when a ship is moving from side to side trying to find balance So these are terms that you'll see a lot in the official reports. At one point, it was rolling to try and find balance, but ultimately, it was listing to the left 30 degrees. None of this is great, but 30 degrees list doesn't mean capsizing. It doesn't automatically mean it, and it gets technical,

but I'm gonna try and describe it as best as possible. If the cargo had been tied down, it probably might have balanced the boat back out. The boat might have rolled and then eventually become stable again. Now even if it didn't become stable again, there is something called ballast water. Okay, this is going to get very technical. Underneath the cargo, all boats want to have a low center of gravity the parts closest to the water needs to be the center of gravity So did you know most boats are filled with water? It sounds counterintuitive, but it's something called ballast water, which is just to bring the center of gravity, right?

Yeah, they had like no ballast water the center of gravity was at the top of the boat Why oh so they can load more cars. Yes. So there's no way that this boat is gonna fix itself, balance itself out, no way. You know, I can't envision it as, you know, sometimes you throw a bowl on the water, it will float.

And then I'm just imagining, like, filling that bowl to the brunt of sinking and floating. Yes. So it's like anything moves, it will start sinking. Precisely. That's literally what this boat is doing. So this is also why it's so pertinent that when you're aboard a boat or a plane, they're tying down all the cargo.

That's why they're so particular about it. If you've ever brought your car on a boat, they tie it down. So all of this cargo, all of these vehicles slam to the left and this boat is not gonna balance out. This boat is 100% going to capsize, meaning it's going to sink. Now, the water is very cold in April. It was about 54 degrees Fahrenheit.

It only takes 10 minutes for you to start feeling the effects of hypothermia. You're not gonna die in 10 minutes, but most of the time. But you start feeling loss of dexterity, your fingers go numb, your teeth are clattering, and full blown hypothermia happens after about two hours. So right at this moment, the boat list, it turns, it leans, and the engines of the boat are cut.

The off-duty captain, captain, each one's hulk, he starts running, he's like, I gotta figure out what's going on. Some crew members also run to the bridge of the boat and they're like, what's going on? Now, they're trying to assess the situation. And when a boat this size starts to list or even starts sinking, it's not like an earthquake.

Not every single passenger is gonna jerk up and go, we need to evacuate this boat. It feels dangerous, but it almost feels like turbulence on a plane. You feel like, okay, I need to wait it out, It feels dangerous, but it almost feels like turbulence on a plane. You feel like, okay, I need to wait it out, and it's going to be fine. You never really hit turbulence, and you're like, this plane is going down. So that's kind of how everyone was feeling except for the crew because they knew better. 8.52am, just two minutes after the boat starts leaning to the left about 30 degrees, an emergency call is made by a student.

Choi Taaka. Choi reported that this heiwa was starting to capsize. He was the first 911 call, and that the water was coming into the deck. He's like, this is something's going on, I'm on the deck and this is dangerous. He was one of the few that understood the severity of the situation, and he was probably confused because he could hear ringing through the PA system, like the intercom system, the speakers on the boats. Do not move, just stay where you are, it's dangerous if you move, stay where you are.

Every single student and passenger was told to stay put. And now, all hell breaks loose. Crew members are calling so many different people. There's the Jeju Vessel Traffic Service, Korean Coast Guard, Jeju Coast Guard, Mokpo Coast Guard Station, their company executives. There's so many different people that this communication system is just bonkers.

The fact that they don't have a system in place of like, if an emergency happens, this is who I call, is crazy to me. Nobody was getting anything done. have a system in place of like if an emergency happens this is who I call is crazy to me. Nobody was getting anything done. So much time initially is wasted in these key moments. At 9.07am the crew confirmed to authorities the theory is capsizing and they confirmed that they needed help from the Korean Coast Guard.

They stated the ship's angle made evacuation impossible. Now here's where it gets crazy. Allegedly, none of these authorities knew that there were 500 passengers on this, well close to 500 passengers on this boat. That's what they claim. I don't believe it for a second, but that's what they claim. Wait, who claimed that? All the postcards. Yeah, that they, no one told us. We just thought it was the crew. We thought it was a cargo ship. Get out of here because this hair wire was well known to be a passenger cargo ship. So they say the ferry is about to roll over, meaning it was listing to the left, but because it was taking in so much water,

it was practically bonk flat onto the left and now it was going to flip over in cap size. So it's not even sinking just to the bottom like this. It's going to be completely inverted. The bottom is going to be the top. The Coast Guard tells the crew on Taiwan to inform any passengers if there are any to put on their life jackets. But they just say, oh, sorry, our PA system is down. It wasn't down. It's just bizarre. So why did they lie? Yeah, so it was like down at one point, but then it comes back up and then a customer service rep

is like playing that or like a customer's relations. Crew members playing the message of like, do not move. There was like no communication. Now the Coast Guard is like, okay, well, if it's down, then go personally tell all the passengers. The crew member is like, okay, I'm gonna do that. He walks out of the command center and walks around a bit

and comes back being like, I did that. He did not do that. He walks out of the command center and walks around a bit and comes back being like, I did that. He did not do that. He just lied. He just blatantly lied to authorities and said, yeah, I told all the passengers to put on their life jackets. What? Yeah. Does he not understand what the hell's going on?

No, they do not. The Coast Guard tries to tell Captain Lee that you need to start thinking and acting fast. They have deployed a vessel. There was a patrol vessel nearby that was coming in about 10 minutes. There was a helicopter that would get there in about one minute and Lee said, yeah, that's not enough to save everybody. Like, there's more passengers than that. Because one helicopter, you could save maybe a dozen people max no maybe like six seven people

keep this apart in mind because later everyone goes and says oh when he said passengers we thought maybe a couple of passengers. Wow I mean right now everything falls on the captain right? Oh yeah but it's going down like what are you doing every second what are you doing exactly and you're going to die when you find out what he was doing. So the passengers up until this point are still being told to stay where they are and do not move.

And some of the very first people rescued was the captain and a few of his crew. The captain was rescued by one of the small Coast Guard boats and he wore ordinary clothes to disguise himself as a passenger. Oh, my goodness. Once he was rescued, he made no attempts, and he actually was rescued.

I don't wanna say before the chaos, because right now is chaos, but he was rescued at a point where it wasn't just utter all hell breaks loose, and there are people drowning and dying right now. He's like, okay, well, I think chaos is about to hit, so I'm going to leave. That's so fucking despicable. Yes.

Yeah, he's actually one of the most hated people in all of South Korea. The whole nation. He's alive. So, he disguised himself as a passenger and once he was rescued, this is even more despicable. He gets on the Coast Card vessel and he doesn't let anyone know that he is the captain and that he has vital information that would help them in rescuing passengers. He doesn't relay any information to them when time and information is the most important thing to save lives.

He made no attempts to tell them how many passengers where they were, what the PA system was doing, he did none of that. He didn't tell them that they were being told to stay in their rooms where they were effectively trapped inside the sinking boat, none of that. There is about 20 minutes of footage from some of the kids' last moments.

And one of the biggest, I guess, video files that were shared were actually shared by the father of the victim. And he said that he wanted the world to know what actually happened to these kids. So it was filmed by a Park Su-hyeong and Kim Dong-hyo. They were both 16 best friends. They were both on the level three of the boat, which is where most of the male students were dorming.

Now, these rooms had bunk beds, about four boys per room. Suyeon and Dongyub, they were two of the last ones to start the day. They're hanging out in the cabin, sitting on the edge of their cabin, like, bunk bed, when they suddenly feel the boat lurched to the left. And at first, everyone's confused, but like I said, it feels like airplane turbulence, they're not freaking out yet. Then they start overhearing the speakers starting playing. Do not move, stay put, it's dangerous if you move just stay where you are.

If you're watching the video on YouTuber Spotify, I'm going to play you a clip of the video. You can actually hear the PA system in the background repeating, stay where you are, over and over again. So the boys on the third floor freaking out, some students who were on the deck come to the cabins to let everyone know to put on their life jackets. The video footage from these students are stitched together to be about 20 minutes, but it's probably the most raw footage I've ever seen in my life. Like it's not necessarily the most emotional in the typical sense, meaning these kids aren't crying.

They're not banging on the windows to get out, but you just see how real and relatable the situation is. Like, the way that these kids, at first, they don't think the ship is going to sink because who thinks that? You know, they're kind of joking around, but they're putting faith in the adults and the captain and the PA system. And they're kind of playing around with each other. And I find that it's a way that they're coping with it.

And then eventually, you hear that humor kind of dissipate, and it gets replaced by them saying, I don't want to die. But they're still trying to keep this almost cool front in front of their friends. You can hear other kids trying to check up on their friends and contacting their family members back home on their phones. But near the end, you can hear and see most of them start to feel very, very scared. You hear students say things like, will the water really leak in? The shaking is getting serious. It's tilting so much this way. I can't even move.

This is getting ridiculous. I want to get off. I really want to leave. Am I going to die? It's not going to go down any further, right? Like, what the hell is going on? Hurry and rescue us. What's wrong with these people? I don't understand what's happening. If they're telling us to wear life vest, does that mean the ship is sinking? They're sliding around so they're using their feet up against the wall to stop them from banging into it. It's, yeah, the listing becomes very, very intense. Near the end, one of the student-even-screens let me live who's going to take care of my mom and sister.

Let me live. And now all throughout this, you hear the PA system in the back, dear passengers, a guidance announcement. Those of you who are inside the ship, please do not move. Try to find a poll you can hold on to. The kids also note that they start smelling something very bad. They wonder out loud if it's gas

because it smells like boiled eggs, which is typically a gas leak scent. Who's talking in the system? Just it's like an automated message. Oh, yeah. Nobody's even like talking. Oh yeah, no. Most of the crew are like, bye.

Here's a button, they press a button, and then they dipped. Uh huh. Yeah. And it's very heartbreaking because you just hear that playing while these kids are repeating, we don't want to die. So more phone calls were placed between passengers and police. The students are even telling the police, please, the ship is sinking. I don't want to die. We've been told to stay put. We're not supposed to move. Another student can be heard saying, really, once the water starts coming in, we really got to get out. And another student says heard saying, really, once the water starts coming in, we really gotta get out.

And another student says, no, no, no, no, no, like it says we shouldn't move. There are a few things to gather from these students last moments. They're trying to stay strong. They're trying to keep each other company. And if you listen and you speak Korean and you listen to the whole clip,

a lot of these kids are thinking about their families or a lot of them are asking, wait, has anybody checked on the girls on the other floor or has anyone checked on the teachers, like trying to see if their friends and even their teachers are okay? Some of them were joking around that this was the Titanic and saying the theme song, which I saw a lot of like old people be like, what's wrong with kids? But that's how they cope. They followed the rules. They followed the advice of the adults who they believed were doing the right thing, so

they stayed put. They trusted the captain. Even teachers were going around dorm to dorm to make sure that these kids didn't go, because they thought again, it was in the best interest and the safety and welfare of the children for them to stay put. One student texted his mom, please if I don't survive mom and dad I love you. Another one texted his parents, mom dad, younger sister I love you guys so much and please don't ever let my little sister go on a school trip ever. These are some of the kids last words.

So key points, they're told to stay in their cabin. They're told not to evacuate or come to the deck. They also noticed that some of the zippers on many of the life fest were broken. Not only that, but one of the boys said, I just discovered something really horrible. He says this on camera. This life fest says it was made in 1994. Here look it's written in the back. Made in 1994. They didn't even have enough live fest to go around.

So a lot of the kids were sacrificing live fest to each other and to their friends. They were asking if the teachers and the girls all had live fest. The videos were captured on King Deng Yap's phone and he would not make it out alive. So while this is the situation inside the boat, mainstream media at the same time, like imagine this is happening at the same time, please, just the irony of all of this, mainstream media starts reporting that all passengers have been rescued. It sounds stranger than fiction. I don't even know how to explain to you what they thought that they were gonna get out of this. What the politicians thought was gonna happen when this all came out to be lies and false. But it's insane. If this happened in a movie, it'd be unbelievable.

There were reports that all passengers were rescued. Tanwan high school parents let out a sigh of relief. Oh my God, okay. That cryptic text, my child is fine. They're probably not responding to my texts or my calls because they're probably on like a Coast Guard vessel right now and they're busy, but that's fine. They start noticing something fishy though.

They're trying to get in contact with their children, no responses. They contact other parents and they're like, no, we also haven't gotten any responses. And when they watch the news very carefully, the numbers aren't adding up. And it's not like some sort of conspiracy, but the government would report that

they rescued all the passengers. Then a little bit later, they'd be like, okay, well, we have rescued majority of the passengers. Then it'd be like, oh, and these are not the exact figures, but it would be something like, we rescued 200 passengers. And then later, they'd be like, we of the passengers. Then it'd be like, oh, and these are not the exact figures, but it would be something like, we rescued 200 passengers. And then later, they'd be like, we rescued 150 passengers. So which one is it? Who are you rescuing?

How do you un-rescue people? You're a powerful nation, and you can't even do basic arithmetic like what's going on. So frustrated, the parents, they start traveling to Chindo Island. Now, Chindo Island is the closest island to where the crash happened. Notindo Island. Now, Chindo Island is the closest island to where the crash happened. Not Jeju Island,

Chindo Island is very close to the southern tip of South Korea. Jeju Island, you'd have to go further out into the yellow sea. The parents all decide to use the Chindo gym to be their coordination place. And I truly don't even know how to explain what I'm gonna say next, but first of all, the people organizing this gym to make sure everyone is in the right place were the parents of the children on the boat. They arrived, there's no organization, it's chaos, so they take it upon themselves to

make sure everything is organized. Not the coast guards, not the local officials, the police, the parents take charge. The rescue teams had these giant white boards on the front with the list of names of passengers who have been rescued. And of course, parents are flocking and praying and wishing that it's their child on the list. But these families are getting frustrated. One parent grabs a mic and says, here, I can clearly see my younger sister's name on the list of survivors.

It says she was rescued, but my sister isn't here, so where is my sister? Who on earth made this list? Another parent screamed, please, just get a support so we can save our kids. Get a support. We don't care how much it costs. I will pay for it. Another one said, I feel like the parents including myself are here waiting for our children to die. We want an answer from the person in charge. Why are orders not going through and nothing's being done. You guys are clearly

lying and kicking responsibility to others. Another parent's screams, let's all go together. Let's all go together. The parents are rushed to the harbor and to show you how they still have this unfailing hope of a parent, they all grab blankets on the way out. They said when their kid gets saved, they want to make sure that they have something to keep them warm. So they all go to the harbor and they wait.

There is nothing that they can do. Side note, police were lined up at the edge of the harbor to prevent family members from going into the water, whether to try and rescue a kid or to, in a desperate attempt. A parent screamed, I want to jump in the water with them. My loved one is under the water, anger is not enough. If I don't have my younger child, I'm going to jump in the water, think about my child in the water.

How can I, as a parent, continue to live, eat, and drink? I hate myself. Someone near a mom tried to put one of the blankets on one of the moms because they were so cold and she cried, what good is it staying warm when the kids are freezing out there? They're freezing. What good is it for us to stay warm? Not a single government official was at that harbor. Nobody responded to the family's frustrations or questions. Wait, this is nighttime? Yeah. It's been a day? It's been a day. We're gonna go back into the rescue. Just you wait. Oh my God. Yeah. So again, I mean, the

family's resorted to asking reporters on what's going on, but none of the reporters, most of the reporters at the harbor at this point were mainstream media reporters. The only ones there that actually cared about helping the parents instead of just getting their tears on camera was new stop-a, which is why I think a lot of parents continue to work with new stop-a. These are some of the most devastating clips I've seen. I mean, just the desperation in these parents, like their grief, their worry, their anger, just, and so many of them is, it's a lot.

So let's talk about the rescue because you mentioned like how is this nighttime? So the rescue that government officials and media said was a success was not a success at all. The Coast Guard helicopter was dispatched to the sinking ferry at 910 AM. They arrive at around 930 AM. Two rescuers come down and rescue six passengers via helicopter. And these passengers were like on the deck. So they're like waving, they're visible, they're outside.

Now, at 9.32, the helicopter starts communicating with the blue house. And the blue house is like the white house and they keep asking, is the situation serious? The helicopter says, the ferry various tilted and currently being flooded, it hasn't sunk in yet. Can you please send over a video? Now this is being heavily criticized because time is of the essence.

Such an urgent incident is taking place. And really, I don't know what to say because it casually feels like the blue house is saying, pigs or it didn't happen. And sure, maybe videos can help them get a better understanding of what's going on, but if this is the government responsible for running a literal company, they better be more competent than this.

They keep calling back to the helicopter, not giving commands, not doing a full-scale command center operation, but going, did you send the videos yet? Just non-stop. Over and over and over again again wasting time asking for videos. And what's even crazier is that the helicopter is like, well we didn't want to take any videos in case it gets leaked. But the blue house is like, it's fine, text it to my phone. The blue house is basically like, okay, well we're going to hang up, just call us back

when you get the footage. Oh, this isn't even, this is like the smallest thing the blue house messes up. So just you wait, I mean, a president was indirectly impeached because of this incident. So soon after this, the Coast Guard patrol vessel 1, 2, 3 arrives at the ferry. They throw over a raft and they head to the ferry to start their little rescue. Just anytime I say rescue, don't think of it as a rescue, think of it in quotations because it's just a bunch of people acting busy. The first people to step into this rescue raft

are the Captain and crew members, not all, but a few. They're like a mile. Yeah, they're like, bye. They have abandoned the ship. But then so does the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard, the vessel, distances itself from the ferry and they try not to enter the ferry, get close to the fairy

They don't try anything Meanwhile, there's about three helicopters that are just circulating that are just loitering the area watching What's the deal? What's the problem then? No one's giving them any commands So they're all clueless on what the hell is going on and the captain is like just staying silent Yeah, and then the blue house is like well We can't tell you what to do unless we get a clear HD 4K video. And then all these other authorities like the Coast Guard, the Moqpo Coast Guard, the Chindo authorities, they're like, well, we don't know what to do. Have you tried calling the blue house? Wow. So everyone's just waiting around. And what's

crazy is that there was a US Navy vessel that was nearby that rushed to the scene and they're like, hey, we can help and the US Navy is so equipped. This vessel had a hundred Marines on there. A hundred Marines. I'm just letting you know right now if I'm ever like anywhere I want Marines to save me. And South Korea was like, it's fine. We're waiting on a video. The government shut them down? Yeah, the government was like, it's fine. We're handling it.

Oh my God. Yeah. What you watch depends on what kind of major in. Sometimes you're craving comedies like friends or South Park and sometimes you're more into dramas like HBO's Succession and House of the Dragon. There's also cooking shows like Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay and even movies like The Lord of the Rings and Shazam, Fury of the Gods. Well, Max is the streaming destination that has the best of entertainment for whatever

mood you're in anytime. And plants start at as little as $9.99 a month. Max, the one to watch. Subscription required. Visit max.com. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway.

Peloton is for all of us. or counting your breaths on the subway. Inhaling and long exhale. Peloton is for all of us. Wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or paid subscription starting at 12.99 per month. I'm going on a little side note, but another rant. The US Marines, the US vessel, the Navy vessel,

actually had helicopters on the vessel, and they had launch pads. So basically, they didn't have to go back to land to bring survivors. They could just go back and forth to their vessel that's parked very close to the sinking theory, so they could save an insane number of survivors. One or two helicopters could just do non-stop back and forth in such short time. We're gonna dive into the US Navy later, because there's a lot of stuff there. to helicopters could just do non-stop back and forth in such short time. We're going to dive into the US Navy later because there's a lot of stuff there. Now, anyways, these are not leisure helicopters either.

The helicopters that are circulating the ferry are Coast Guard helicopters and they make no additional effort. So they saved six people initially. That's it. They make no additional efforts to rescue anyone. They later claimed that they had no idea that there were passengers inside. They thought the rescue was over and they were just surveilling the sinking of the ferry. To sum it up, the rescue teams were just rescuing anyone that comes to the deck

where you can visibly see them, but every single passenger was told to stay in their cabins. Oh my god, can I even imagine what that captain was going through at that moment. But we can't even imagine it because I don't think any of us have such little empathy for human life. Yeah, like when you got out, does he think that all the kids that are gonna come onto the deck eventually or does he think the Coast Guard's gonna break in? Yeah, is he knowingly making a decision

like whatever, I just gotta save myself, let them die. Okay, my speculation is probably the last one because I imagine if rescue efforts were made, he would be the last one rescued because that's kind of how it is in maritime communities but maybe he thought there is a bigger chance he might die because I don't know what he was thinking genuinely. I can't even guess.

So no one is saving anyone unless they're visibly out on the deck, like waving their arms around in these bright red life jackets. Like I said, the problem is nobody was told to come out onto the deck. The helicopters again claimed that they had no reason to believe that there were passengers inside. When a helicopter, Coast Guard officer, even during an interview, complaints, you don't rescue hard. Because you tell a person that you're rescuing

to watch their step, and they don't watch their step, even if you tell them to. A new step is like, that's not the point here. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the fact that you circled around the sinking theory and made no attempts to save anyone. They're like, we didn't know there was anyone to save. It's like why would you even bring that up? It's so bizarre, nobody asked.

Now the annoying part is the helicopters that are circulating were talking separately with the Blue House. The giant vessel from the Coast Guard was speaking separately with the Blue House as well as the Coast Guard. There was no coordination. It seemed like everything was all how breaks loose nobody knows what they're doing. Blue House is still asking for videos and the only people that do something to save human lives. Do you see all these little boats that are going so close to this capsizing fairy, which is very dangerous to do? And if you guys are not watching the video version, these tiny little boats, they look like giant canoes with an engine there's no like room it's just like a little canoe boat those are civilian boats and fishermen they are the ones that took action they are risking their

lives pulling up straight next to this capsizing ginormous ferry. And it's very dangerous to get that close to a boat that's capsizing, especially with boats like this. And they're pulling people out of the water. One of the fishermen, Hyun, in the blue boat, he said he saw the boat listing to one side from afar. And he realized that it wasn't balancing itself back out. So he rushes over. He starts rescuing passengers that were jumping into the cold water. And he said it was hell. It was agonizing. There were a lot of people, not enough boats. The people in the water are yelling for help. The ferry was sinking fast. He said he had no idea of how many people he saved, but he was told.

He saved about 25 people. He said, but I don't know for sure. The people that were trapped inside the ferry couldn't come out. They were just trapped inside the ferry. If everyone was saved, maybe I would feel proud of myself. But there's grieving parents out there, so how can I feel proud? Even though he's one of the civilian saving passengers while the Coast Guard is doing nothing, he lives with guilt for not saving everyone.

What's frustrating is when the ferry starts to list. If the captain had ordered everyone to put on a life jacket and get to the dock where they're visible, the likelihood of every single person surviving was incredibly high. The amount of vessels nearby, not just civilian boats and fishermen, but the Coast Guard ships, the US Navy vessels, I mean, the resources of that US Navy vessels, like I said, multiple helicopters, landing decks

of the helicopters, over 1,000 Marines ready to assist in air sea rescue. 1,000? 1,000, sorry, did I say 100? You say 100? 1,000. 1,000 Marines, that's how big the US Navy vessel was. Wow.

1,000 Marines, and I know I'm American, so it might not mean anything, because it's just patriotism. That's how big the US Navy vessel was. Wow. One thousand Marines. And I know I'm American, so it might not mean anything because it's just patriotism. But if I'm in the water somewhere, I want these Marines to save me. And America and Korea are on really good terms. So I don't know why they declined for help. But a lot of people think it's President Park was known to have a big ego. And was very, very self-conscious about

international relations, but not in the way that you want your president to be. Not in the way of like, oh, of course we want good international relations, but wanted to look good as all she cared about. So the US Navy vessel just worried her around waiting to be used at any given moment. They're like waiting to be called in because, you know, it'd be a shit show if they just went in there, but the call never came. The rescue could have been so successful and these Marines are specifically trained in air-sea rescue. No way. The Korean Coast Guard, they were more like patrol people. They

patrol to make sure that there's no illegal fishermen from other countries fishing in their seas Most of the Korean Coast Guard was on a job to Look for illegal Chinese fishermen literally that was their job So the US Navy why were they not used? I still don't understand One thing that you notice that's a problem is that all of these officials who get paid by the state by government tax dollars that the civilians pay, they don't want to be the ones to make the call. They don't want to be the ones held accountable, so everyone keeps pushing responsibility onto each other, and that's what resulted in so many of these different vessels and helicopters just waiting around while people are dying.

But there are heroes in this story. So, do you remember the first emergency call made was by student, Che. He stayed on the phone with emergency services, trying to give them the exact location of the sinking ferry. So then they should know there's kids in there. Yeah. But yeah, exactly.

He tried to give the exact location, because again, I don't know why this was such a problem. I don't know how they didn't know where the exact location was but remember the two and a half hour delay I guess they were thinking the boat was near closer to Jeju because they didn't factor in the delay but they were closer to Jindo Island so it was it was a mess and Cheh he was sad that he wasn't able to call his parents the information that he was able to provide authorities was very crucial. Ches body was found, and his parents were really confused

because a lot of these other kids, they all had cell service and they called their parents, but they never got a call from their son. They were later told that he was the one on the phone with emergency services. And they said, it made sense. We're just so proud of him. And we think that God brought our boy into this world

for this purpose to try and save people. While captantly and a few of the other crew members escaped, there were some crew members who refused. Park Ji-yeon, Dong-hyun-sun, and Kim Ki-won. They stayed aboard the ferry to help the students. All three went down with the sinking boat. Park Ji-young was the youngest part-time worker of the crew. She was just 22 years old.

I mean, she's barely older than these high school students. Two years prior to this, her father passed away and her mom didn't have enough money. So she dropped out of school and started working. She was one of the first to have an easy escape. She was like near the dock. She could hear the kids though, and the PA system was still telling them to stay put.

So she runs to the ship, took off her life jacket, gave it to a younger kid nearby who didn't have one. And like I said, she's basically a kid herself. She starts dumbling, running as fast as she can through the halls and yells for the students to evacuate. She's handing out life jackets. She tells them to jump ship. She guides some 50 students to the civilian fishing boats who live them out of the water and into the boat. One survivor remembers grabbing parks arm and saying, okay, just come jump in the water with us.

Like, you don't have a life jacket, but I'm going to hold your arm. And she said, after saving you guys, after saving the rest of them, I'll get out. Crew goes out last. And then she just disappeared again to save more kids. She kept going and the last time someone saw her alive was going deeper into the water where it was already chest level

to see if there were more students. Her body was later found floating face down, still note life jacket. Even in her last moments she never wore one because there wasn't enough life jackets for both passenger and crew. Two other crewmates, Changyong Sun and Kim Gi-won, they refused to escape with cowards. They wanted to save the kids. Cheongyeon Kim also could have been very easily rescued, but they decided to go back down and help the children. They were both 28 and they were actually getting married later that year to each other. Their bodies were later found as well and they had spent their last moment saving children. These three part-time crew members would formally be recognized by the government as national

martyrs. Because it was just such a stark contrast to the captain and the crew, I mean most of the crew who were among the first to abandon the ship. Young Da-young was another crew member that went down with the ship. He was 45 years old and he called his wife and he told her, this is where you need to find the savings for our teenage son's college tuition, okay? And when she tried to plead with him, he told her, I love you, but I can't talk. I have to go save the kids. His body was found a month later and his face was

unrecognizable and there was a walkie-talkie found near him. Su-young was a young teacher and it was her second year of teaching at Tan-wan High. She was very young and it was her first year on the school field trip. When the boat started sinking, she texted her mom. Mom, the ship was sinking. Her mom called her and was like, her, you put on a life vest and she responded calmly. Mom, the students are all wearing lifefests.

Indicating there weren't any more for her. She texted her boyfriend after this and said, I'm sorry, there's no more lifefests. Thank you and I love you. And he calls her and she says, I can't, I'm sorry, my battery is low and some of the students still need to call their parents. Her last words were I love you. Thank you, Teraboy friend. Another teacher was Koot Tung Suk and Mr. Koot was a P teacher. He was a P teacher for the last decade and at his old job before he got to Tan one, there was actually a fire in the school and he was given like an award by the school because he ran and head on into the fire to save students from the burning fire. He also went down and I mean there was no question what he was going to do he was going to

save the kids. He left behind a loving wife and two sons. His body actually wouldn't be recovered until three years after the incident. There was a memorial service held for him and a student came and said, Mr. Coe could have escaped early, but he stayed to take care of us until the very end. So these are all heroes and it's not really a heartwarming story though, where you feel good in the end.

You're like, yes, the hero won because nobody wins. There's like way too many villains in this one to even get close to the number of heroes. There's like way too many villains in this one to even get close to the number of heroes. There's another story though on the boat where I six-year-old girl. This reminds me of Itewan, but a six-year-old girl was there with her parents and her seven-year-old brother. So they were part of the passengers that were going on vacation to Jeju. She was passed one by one from adults She was passed one by one from adults to the water to one of the fishermen's boats. All the way. Her parents and her seven-year-old brother would all perish.

Everyone worked to get this crowd of safety and she would be the youngest survivor of Sihwar. Now, civilians were the only hope for these children because of the government, the authorities, they were doing nothing. Like I said, most of these boats saving these people are civilians, fishermen, commercial fishermen, just regular citizens, not government workers. But many civilian divers who saw the news said they were gearing up to volunteer as rescuers. These are like professional divers who have been doing this that want to volunteer to save

these kids. They know the dangers. They're gearing up, they're coming from the volunteer to save these kids. They know the dangers. They're gearing up, they're coming from soar and all these places, but then the news. The news starts flooding that everyone has been rescued. So they're like, oh, okay, I guess I don't have to go. Like why would I go into the water if everyone's already rescued out of the water?

And it wasn't until hours later, there were these like rumors and these kind of like fishy things that these volunteer divers were even picking up on. Because these are people who know how to dive and the way that the news was reporting these rescues just didn't sound right. So they're like, why don't I just head to Chinno Island and see what's going on. Maybe they need me, maybe they don't.

I mean, at least I can try, right? So many precious hours were lost because these civilian divers didn't go at the time because I mean, nobody's blaming the civilian divers here. They're risking their lives to save others, but the fact that they thought everyone had been rescued, it's just so frustrating how grossly mishandled this was. Many of the civilian divers, they volunteered and they started arriving around 4 p.m. that day. The boat started singing at 9am.

They got there around 4pm and they were told to report to a command ship of the Coast Guard that was stationed near the ferry. So these volunteer divers, they don't come to play. They're suiting up, gearing up, mentally preparing themselves, but the Coast Guard is not letting them do their jobs. One of the civilian divers said it was bizarre. I was being walked around this Coast Guard vessel. Like, come here, let me introduce you to my colleague.

Oh, and this is my captain here. Oh, and then this is my senior colleague. What did you say your name was? How long have you guys been diving? Oh, yeah, oh, that's cool. Oh, you know, my colleague is from that area. Do you want to come to the cafeteria? They prepared ramen.

This is not an exaggeration. The rescue divers said they prepared ramen, and he was so disgusted. He just didn't understand. He saw some of the top dogs aboard this command ship, two star Navy officers, chief of the Coast Guard, chief of the West Coast Coast Guard, the chief of the Mokepo Coast Guard,

fancy suits and shoes, tipped tapping away on their laptops. Well, I'm confused. Like, they're not sending people down the water? No. That's what they're doing. Just tipped tapping on their laptops. The ramen was even brought into the conference room for these chiefs to eat,

and the diver that was interviews said he wished he could have recorded the video of these chiefs just digging into these noodles like pigs. They said they ate the ramen noodles, had a meeting for five minutes, and then the chiefs were like, well, we got other places to be so by. He was sick and to see that the chief of the West Coast Guard went to a press conference like immediately after this, the whole ramen debacle in his uniform with all of his badges and stated as of today 164 vessels 24 aircraft

178 special rescue workers are doing our best in conducting a search of the area The civilian diver had no words Just no words, but he's not alone many of the civilian divers came forward anonymously later to say that the Coast Guard Would not let them do their job and it wasn't even a job. They're volunteering Just wouldn't let them do it It's just nonstop like oh come meet my colleague. Oh, are you sure that's up to code? You're you're diving suit. Are you sure? What is it made out of? They're like what is your deal? Let us go save some children right now.

So the parents now remember how the parents wanted to rent a boat to go out to see for themselves and to save their children. Well, the very first day a group of the parents do rent a boat and they go to report back to the others what's going on and one dad screamed. They told us civilians can enter the water but the coast guard can't. What is this? They're basically saying, oh you want to dive in and get your kid, dive in and get your kid, but we can't. He's screaming, what is this? What is this? The civilian diver, one of the civilian rescue divers had volunteered to go on the boat with them and he was explaining like, with these conditions, the Coast Guard should be going in. The conditions are calm.

This is like optimal rescue conditions right now. Earlier that day, civilian fishermen were trying to break windows to save people, but the Coast Guard said, no, we can't do that. So they can't break windows. They can't go into the ferry before it sinks to save people. And now that part of the ferry is sunk in, they can't try to rescue people by diving, they can't go into the ferry before it sinks to safe people. And now that part of the ferry is sunk in, they can't try to rescue people by diving.

They can't do anything. What are you doing? Why do you exist? Why do you have a job? A reporter asked a parent who saw the ferry sinking and said, and what are the co-scarred doing right now? And he says, as of right now, there is nothing they're doing. And he falls to the ground sobbing.

April 16th was the morning the boat started listing. Okay, now at 10.52 reporters went out to the scene and still nothing was being done. 10.52 PM. You're saying 14 hours later the boat's still sinking? Yeah, it's still actively sinking. And this is like you need to dive in. So what happens on these boats is time is of the essence. Of course, the golden hour was the first hour and a half that

the boat even started listing way in the morning at like 9 a.m. When the captain was like, tell everyone to stay in their cabins, that was golden hour. Almost everyone could have been saved had they just gotten to the deck. They would have been saved, okay? Now, the next golden time was considered the next 72 hours because there's actually a phenomenon that's quite common where there's air pockets inside of boats. So these divers need to go in and get these people inside of these air pockets. So if you're in a room where no water has seeped in,

which is sometimes possible, you're alive. You have about 72 hours. So these divers need to get down there and hope that there's a lot of air pockets. Yeah, yeah, even if there's one person, they should be doing everything. Yes, yes. This is how still in calm the water was. Where are all the Coast Guard vessels?

Where are the divers? They should be lit up like a command center. They should be lit up like the Fourth of July. It's the most peaceful water. There's no waves, really. Nothing. No one's out there. Meanwhile, during... What is going on?

Exactly. During press conferences, the Coast Guard made it seem like it is pure chaos out there with our rescue efforts. We've got how many ships, how many people? Oh, you guys South Korea, just you wait. Coast Guard's got you. They said the water was as calm as a lake. There was a single wave, but nothing was being done.

You could still see the ferry, it hadn't fully capsized yet. There were no rescue efforts. I mean, imagine the anger of the parents saying that, and they can't do anything for their children. They were yelling at their boat to the Coast Guard. Do something. They screamed, they're alive, they're alive, you have to rescue them. The Coast Guard never responded.

All they did was circle this how are very over and over. What's their excuses now? They said that they had to like, survey the area. That's like the thing that they constantly say in this whole tragedy is they needed to survey the conditions. They needed to make sure they could go in. I don't get it. Who's in charge? Who's saying, what? I'm so confused about this. Every Coast Guard official is saying a different thing,

but all of them have the same message of we're doing everything we can. But nobody's doing anything. Okay, so it sounds like there's someone from the top not letting them do something, right? So it's speculated it's not that they were not letting them do something, but they had no idea how to do anything. So the Korean Coast Guard was not trained for search and rescue. They can dive in and people people. So they're like we're probably gonna die. So they were allegedly just telling the blue house, whatever you're suggesting we do, we're not capable. We can't do it.

Then where's the capable people? Where's the, but they didn't say we're not capable. They're like, conditions won't let us. The condition is too bad. So then I don't think South Korea would then go to the US and be like, hey, the condition is too bad. Y'all get in there. Because it's a lot more than that.

So you're saying the South Korea didn't have anyone else. They can pull firm to do something. That's what they did. They did the same like like or a lot of them Okay, so a lot of these politicians it was like a balancing game They want help but their reputations depend on them not asking for help whether it's from different departments in Korea Whether it's civilian rescue divers whether it's the US Navy They did not want to ask for help, but they themselves did not have the competency to do the search and rescue

But they couldn't admit to that. So they're all just like shifting blame around. So for President Park, I imagine it's embarrassing that you don't have a team of qualified people to do search and rescue. In your whole nation, like imagine the US Navy fucked up this bad, you don't think America would be like, I guess we're not a cool powerful nation, I guess we're ass. Yeah, so I guess it's just a lot of like reputation control and none of these Coast Guard officials wanted to be the one to do it because there's like five different Coast Guards.

That's another huge problem. It's not like, oh, just US Navy. Okay. Because then you have a top dog that's like, okay, well, if the president doesn't want to do anything, I got to at least do something, right? Uh-huh. But there's like the mucful coast guard, the coast guard of the west coast, the regular coast guard. There's so many people involved that they're like, well, let's just see if they do something. Because what if we do it and we fuck it up, that it's on us? So we just wait, like, they want to do something they can do it. So they're all by standards. They're all by standards.

They care more about their reputation and their careers. Yeah, the parents are screaming, what are you doing? You need to do something, get in the water. And they even screamed, I'm not saying this is easy work, but you need to at least show that you're trying. There are survivors in that ship. What is wrong with you? It's so heartbreaking because a dad on the boat tries to jump into the water and everyone tries to stop him. And what's crazy about this

is that the Coast Guard official documents report that they were doing underwater rescue efforts at that exact time that the parents are out there watching them. There was no such thing. So how do your reports say that you were doing intensive underwater rescue? They stated that they did rescue all night long, but all they did was get on a little boat and circle the capsizing ferry. At one point one of the coast guards drives up close to it and just like knocks on the ferry. It's like, and the parents are like, a parent who saw that said, I can't believe I was inches away from my child and all I could do is helplessly watch him die.

So the parents, the reporters on this boat that saw this, they saw the discrepancy of no actual rescue efforts being done, they recorded videos of it, sent it to all the major news network. So the reporters on there were a lot of trusted reporters by parents. Did you know at first, the parents were allowed a boat out there by the Coast Guard and it was filled to the brim with mainstream media news reporters? There

wasn't enough room for parents. The parents forcibly kicked them out, but just the disgust that these media reporters were like, well I know that we said two seconds ago that we already rescued everyone, but can I go take some more pictures out there? So they're trusted reporters went out with them and they sent all of these videos to mainstream major news networks Not a single one of them aired it not a single one of them talked about the discrepancy because they were under President Park president Park was known as a Very very fascinating woman who loved to bully reporters and mainstream news media. That was her thing. So there are like, this makes her look bad so we can post it?

Yeah, because then we're going to be on her shit list. That was the very first day and night of rescue efforts. That's all they did. Nothing. I mean, they did nothing. The next day, April 17th, it doesn't get any better. There is still no control tower, no organized operation, nobody has one person that they're really reporting to. Even the president

president park, she was MIA for the first seven hours of the incident. She was nowhere to be found. We're gonna get to it later. So the president and the prime minister, they visit the area in Chindol Island where the parents are gathered. Apparently, a boatload of politicians, lawmakers, and parents had gone out on a boat to go visit the Coast Guard, and parents were disgusted. I wish I was eloquent. I wish I could describe to you what kind of emotion that must have been, but the parents said they stood there, and they watched the Coast Guard, point at maps. They watched the politicians in

Suitsko, it was like watching people pretend to do a job, it was like watching a skit, they felt like they were losing their minds. The Coast Guard is saying things that they know are not true, like we worked so hard last night to do underwater rescue. They're pointing at random maps, pointing at pictures of inside this herorferi. Parents get on into the dock of the Coast Guard vessel and they see divers go under the surface of the water, kind of like flap around for five minutes and then come back out.

They said it's like a sick joke. Like everyone's pretending, like I imagine I would want to shake someone by their shoulders. Like hello, can you wake up? Like there's people dying. The parents decide that they can't trust anyone, so they start their own task forces and have coordinated group chats to really information in a clean and orderly fashion. They were more informed than the Coast Guard. One parent actually confronts a government official who tells him we're doing, we were doing rescues all night. The parent gets in his face and says stop lying and manipulating the news and tell me, look me in the eye and tell me you were doing rescues all night.

The government official seems shocked and tries to grab his phone and call someone like, oh, we were, we were. The government officials actually seem shocked that the parents have such up-to-date information. I guess they didn't think that the parents would be that coordinated. Like, parents would call them out for every single discrepancy and they were shocked. And every single one of them has the same reaction. They're saying something so confidently.

We rescued this many people. Oh, this is what we've been doing. The parent confronts them with their lies. They all grab their phone and call someone. One of the parent literally goes, why are you lying to me? We have our parents on a boat out there. I just talk to them. That is a blatant lie. The government official goes and they were at the Coast Guard boat.

Oh, and he grabs his phone. Oh yeah, you're welcome. This is bickable. Yeah, this bickable. Now, at that moment, the prime minister shows up at the Tindogim. 아 예 여보세요 띄스 비크 볼 예 띄스 비크 볼 자, 그의 시 night long. Because I think he walked in expecting some things in questions, but instead he was chased down and had water bottles thrown at his face, open water bottles, which I think is symbolic in hindsight. In the end, police protected him and escorted him out. President Parkine also visited with this whole entourage of security and politicians. Parents were a bit more receptive to her because at

the end of the day, this is the most powerful person in the nation. If anyone is going to help them, it's going to be her. So even if they hate her, they can't show it. But they were let down once more. She stated, I just went to the rescue team and I want to assure you guys all the government mobilized all resources and personnel to retrieve the victims. The Coast Guard chief also goes up next to the president and claims that he has sent 500 divers to the rescue. The parents know that this is a blatant lie. They are in rage. They start screaming at the chief of the Coast Guard. Inside note, there's video of this and President Park doesn't even seem surprised that the parents are screaming at his lies. Almost as if she knows very well herself that those are blatant lies.

Because I imagine if I'm the president and my chief just lied to me, I'd be like, hmm, why are they booing that? But she looks like she was expecting it. Families said they were straight up stunned at the blatant lies that were being shoved in their face. It was unbelievable. Also, Parcuni starts using this as an opportunity to say shit that nobody cares about. Like, their kids are still out there, they want rescue teams, and she states, so what we're going to do with this is this is an opportunity to conduct

a thorough investigation on the cause of the accident and severely punish those involved. That's not what anyone is talking about right now. That was the whole second day of the rescue. anyone is talking about right now. That was the whole second day of the rescue. The second most valuable day, that's how it went. The third day, April 18th, a lot of developments took place and none of them were good. This howard fairy was now fully submerged. Parents went out and they couldn't see the boat anymore

and they cried. Government also led a private company step in for rescue efforts. A company called Undine started to lead the rescue attempts. But it was more of a recovery attempt. It was like a half rescue, half recovery. So there's still a chance that you can live 72 hours in an air pocket, but it was guesstimated that most of the bodies being retrieved would be dead, so it'd be a recovery attempt. Now they sucked.

Undine sucked so bad. I think that this was just like a government contract bid that won I don't even understand how they were in control of this now the idea from the get go was the coast guard or someone Since they're the coast guard is useless would inject air into this how are very this is gonna help with multiple things It would hopefully improve its buoyancy and this is very important because if the the boat is fully submerged in water It's gonna start sinking and divers fully submerged in water, it's going to start sinking and divers cannot be in there when it's sinking to the bottom. So they need it to somewhat still be near the surface of the water, makes it easier for

rescue or recovery. And if there is human life, injecting air could create, like, help those air pockets survive longer. That's what Undine was here to do. The Coast Guard couldn't do it clearly, so Undine is here. They should have done this like first thing when rescue started, but they didn't have the Coast Guard didn't have the tools. So on the third day, they're like, we're bringing in a private sector. Okay, we're bringing in the private sector. Undine's going to do this and Undine comes in with these massive air compressors. They're old. They're industrial use not compatible with human life. Meaning

if you injected this into a room, you'd probably kill the people in the room. The air is like auto gas air and they're super old and outdated. I mean, you, what? But undying marine shows up with these compressors like with their full chest. They're like, yeah, these are the ones. Are you not even ashamed? Not only do they not have the proper equipment, but they also don't have the experience. Again, the US Navy was nearby and offered their assistance once more. They said we have new compressors and we also have qualified professionals that utilize

these compressors and have done rescue efforts such as this one. They were denied. South Korea said, thank you though. But no. This day also marked the first discovery or recovery of bodies. Three bodies were recovered by civilian divers, but mainstream media said all of it was due to undying. Undying, recovered these bodies, and that makes me so mad, because these civilian divers gave up a lot to help. They were not part of the Navy or the Coast Guard. They were moms and dads, corporate employees,

professional divers and other industries. They were stay-at-home parents. The only thing that these divers had in common was that they liked to dive, they were good at it, and they wanted to help people. So they left their homes and their families to drive to this southern part of Korea to do the most important dive of their lives. Many of these civilian divers would end up permanently injured, paralyzed, traumatized, depressed,

and somewhat even lose their lives because of this dive. They told each other, minimize shock when you're down there. Shock is no good for anyone. What does that mean? The divers all made a pact to not look the students in the eye. Because once you do that, you will never be the same and it will make it harder for you to go back down underwater. They talked about how it was the hardest thing.

The ones that drowned, they would have to recover their bodies, right? So their families could put them to rest, but there was so much debris in the water, because think about this big ship, there's so much things falling apart, walls were collapsing, and the hallways became as like narrower than your shoulder width. A lot of them had to squeeze through hallways. Bad weather delayed the use of a diving bell, so they had to use these super flimsy flexible air hoses.

But if they're twisting and turning in there, it could easily snap, break, or it could be folded to a point where they're not getting air anymore. It could get caught in things. It was very, very dangerous. They had to go down in teams of three and they would never forget the things they saw. There were bodies in life jackets floating around in the ship now and the divers had to reach up, grab the bodies and hug them so that they wouldn't keep floating up. They would find a window that they could break and get rid

of all glass and debris. Then they would carefully push the body through the open window so that they could float to the surface. If a body was found without a life jacket, two divers, one diver would have to wrap their arms around the stud body, and the second diver would have to pull them through a rope to the surface. The divers said they found many of the students hugging each other, holding each other, or tied together. They said, how hard it must have been for those kids.

With the cold water rushing in, and the darkness coming over them, I thought to myself, why did I even offer to volunteer with this? If I can't even save one life. Most of the students had broken fingers. They tried till their very last moment to break the doors or windows to escape, breaking their fingers in the process. After seeing this, a lot of divers would never be the same. Kim Sang-ul, one of the civilian divers, said, he was at home when he watched the news, and his diver buddies called him up and was like, you need to get here now, we need to save some kids.

So he drove hours from his house and told her to the southern coast, he spent two months away from his family, risking his life to squeeze into the small openings these dangerous conditions, I mean to find bodies. They worked in three hour shifts. He did it for two months. Three hours of rest, three hours of diving, three hours of rest. But like the other divers, he was having a hard time resting no matter how exhausted he was. The stress of the dives wrecked his body, the anxiety wrecked his body,

finding these water bloated corpses of children. He said he could never get that image out of his mind and he had nightmares any time he closed his eyes. He said we were touching each of these children with our bare hands as we brought them up. Even now, I can't hold my wife or children, I can't stand skin. In addition to the psychological trauma he has, he suffered a shoulder injury that needed surgery. So while he was diving, a luggage compartment in this he wore broke open and massive luggage tumbled straight onto his shoulder. He had to get surgery and he says he drinks every day now.

He just drinks because it's his medicine. In the end, his biggest regret isn't even volunteering. His biggest regret was getting there too late. He said, I couldn't even save one person. Many of the civilian volunteers, they all went through so much. So 43-year- old Kim Gwan-hong He helped bring back 25 bodies At one point he lost consciousness during a dive got swept away in the current was saved

Had to go to the ER for treatment. He stayed in the hospital for three days. The minute he got back out He was back in the water He went into places where the Coast Guard weren't even attempting to go not even pretending like they were gonna go He went to places the the Coast Guard weren't even attempting to go, not even pretending like they were gonna go. He went to places the Coast Guard deemed too dangerous and he brought back children in his arms. He said, the victims were tangled together in their utter terror and I prayed and cradled each one of them as I brought them up. The divers did their best while the country did nothing. The country did nothing, especially for the divers. Do you know what the divers got in exchange for their contribution? Nothing.

Okay, his only thing that he got, the only reason he did this was for the families of the victims. To give them closure and to do right by the children of the nation, but his body was wrecked. He cannot dive anymore. His mounting hospital bills. He has paralysis in his left thigh. The government refused to deem the 39 injured civilian divers during the search operations as wounded by righteous causes, which would allow them to get health benefits and not have medical bills.

In fact, the government actually turned their back on volunteer divers. They tried to charge a few of them for negligence when a diver died during a mission. They said, well, it's because of you other divers didn't check his equipment, but the Coast Guard was never held accountable. Divers had to go to court to explain

I am not responsible for another diver's death. I am just volunteering to save bodies. The divers that all tried while the Coast Guard did nothing, they were being used and abused. In 2015 Kim testified about the trauma that he suffered from handing all the dead bodies during the rescue efforts. He said he cannot forget it. He will never forget it. And in 2017, he took his own life. His final text to his loved ones were, I'll see you in a better place in the next life.

I'm sorry. So you're mad. I'm mad. OK, let's all be mad at someone. And there's a whole lot of people to be mad at in this case. Chong-A-Jing, Ferry Company, the Coast Guard, the former president, and mainstream media. So let's talk about Chongqing Company first.

The Fairy Company, this is the connection to the last episode if you listen to it, and the Fairy Company's sick obsession with overloading the cargo on their fairies. So this particular fairy, this hewar, had a capacity of holding 90 vehicles. On that day, there were 124 cars and 56 trucks. Wow. None of them were properly secured. None of them were even tied down. They were just driven on to the cargo port and just left on park. They also took in more cargo than allowed for that size of a boat.

Their maximum cargo hold is 987 tons, but they took in 1,157 tons. Again, none of which was tied down. Do we know why the person at the beginning turned a bowl so much? Fitting degrees? Unclear to this day, we think it's incompetence. Just straight up was like trying to do five, but turn 15, because it's manual steering.

And I'll tell you why we think it's incompetence because no one was trained. Like none of the crews were trained. Oh, inside note, not all big boats are like that. Many big boats can turn at even higher degrees and be fine. But this specific boat, it was like a industry-known thing between this company that this boat can only turn 5 degrees because it's unbalanced. But it's not a universal boat thing.

It's like this boat can only turn 5 degrees. Now, it's not good to do a lot of degrees of turns, but still, this is crazy. The boat starts leaning to the left, which causes all the cargo and all the cars to slam to the left, which starts leaking in tons of water. Now remember the ballast water that I was talking about? We have some exact measurements here. Like I said, it's a very important purpose. It keeps the center of gravity low, but there is another thing that it does.

So it's actually compartmentalized the water. It's not just like one big water tub. It's like you have the left tub and the right tub, and I'm simplifying it. And then in between these two tubs you have these pumps. So what happens is if the boat starts leaning to the left, you start pumping this water to the right tub, okay, to balance it out. The pumps were broken. The pumps were broken. That is, I can't even describe to you how bad that is. The pumps were broken and not only that, there is like a mathematical equation

to figure out how much ballast water is needed to offset the cargo weight. Typically, it's around the two times mark, meaning you need double the water for the cargo. So if there's a hundred pounds of water, you can only have 50 pounds of cargo. In this case, this heller was carrying about 580 tons of ballast water.

For the amount of cargo they had, they needed 2,000 tons of ballast water. They had a fourth. Yeah, so it's completely off. So off. Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in them? Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's gonna catch us? What a police!

It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform, we're going to want some drug dealers and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat?

100% I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Autosy Originals documentary podcast series available now in the Autosy app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a bad guy man, but I love being a dirty mother s***er. And that's what they started with. The crew actually pumped out hundreds of tons of water from the bottom to accommodate additional cargo when they were loading. And as the boat goes, you actually lose more ballast, like water, because part of that

compartment is fuel. So as your boat is going, you lose fuel because you're using the fuel. So it becomes lighter. That's why you need extra water. So let's work our way up the food chain. The first people at fault were the captain and the crew. Not all the crew, but many members of the crew. Crewmates were investigated for their abysmal handling of the evacuation, and one crewmate

in particular was told verbatim by authorities to remember. To go tell everyone to put on the life jacket? Yeah, well he didn't do it. He was just like, oh yeah, I told them, but he just walked around the deck and was like, okay yeah. What's crazier is that all the crew members that were on the bridge with the captain, they all left with him.

They were some of the first to be rescued, but that also meant nobody else was on the bridge anymore to keep open communication with rescue efforts. So then leaving the boat wasn't just bad that they were abandoning the boat, but there was no one to communicate with them on the boat. So all these coast guards are like, we're trying to talk to people on the boat, but like nobody's on the boat.

Cuz you guys are out here? That's cool. A former US coast guard investigator believes if those announcements of every passenger to stay in their cabin were not made, the passengers most likely, just human nature, would have gone to the deck to see what was going on, then they would have become easily visible and more easily accessible to rescuers. Now of course, it's heavily discussed and speculated how much of this announcement played a role in the deaths. passenger Koo, a survivor, said that the passengers were trapped inside by windows that were very

hard to break. He said he actually wanted to escape earlier, but those non-stop announcements kept telling him to stay put. He said the rescue was horrendous. We were all wearing life jackets. We all had time. If people had jumped into the water, they could have been rescued from the water. Another survivor said, the announcement told us to stay put, but the ship was already sinking. There were a lot of students who didn't get out of the ship in time because of those announcements.

And also like, like the slow process of this. Yeah. It's not even a quick, like, you just see the water rise on you, like inch by inch by inch. I, yeah. It's kind of be one of the worst way to go. You can call your parents and talk to them, and they can't do anything to help you because no one can help you right now or no one's choosing to help you. Okay, fine.

So, the captain and these crew members minus a few of the hero crew members, they are horrendous but how do they fuck up so majorly? Like, that doesn't even make sense. How do you even not have a loose plan on what to do in situations like this? That brings us to the company that owns this Hewar fairy, Chong-E-jin Marine Company. Chong-E-jin Marine is like a different kind of evil, okay? This is in connection with our last episode. Chong-E-jin's company's biggest shareholders are owned by another company that is controlled by a billionaire, church leader, founder, Yu Byeong-un's two sons.

And in recent years, it was discovered that the U family received a total of at least $3.82 million from the ferry company. They got paid out, like about $4 million from this ferry company. And you're like, okay, that's great, right? That means the ferry company is doing well. No, the very company was in financial ruins. The year before the sinking, they reported a loss of $800,000 that year.

They were cutting down on spending because the bottom line wasn't making sense. And you know where they were cutting down on spending? It was not to give their shareholders money. It was in the training and safety department of employees and new hires. Prosecutors discovered that so much money was being funneled to the billionaire family. Nothing was left for the actual company. Nothing was left to train the employees. The company was so starved of funds that they spent only $2 on the safety training for this hairwrested crew members. $2. You get hired, the company

spends $2 to train you. And do you know what that money was spent on? It was not an actual training. The two dollars was spent to buy a fake paper certificate that said you are now qualified to be a crew member. You have done your safety courses. Life jackets, life rafts were left uninspected from the 90s. And the life jackets weren't even stored where they were supposed to be, which is on the upper decks or near the evac points, evacuation points. They were stored in the passenger cabins. Crew members who worked for the company admitted in interviews, they would have had no clue what to do in case of an emergency. They've never had an evacuation

training or a drill. To put it in perspective how horrendous that is, the US Coast Guard regulations require passenger vessels to hold an abandoned ship drill and fire drill every single week. And it's not even like a hee hee ha ha we did at moment. You have to lower a lifeboat onto the water and start the engine of that lifeboat. That is the full drill. So it's a full-scale drill. Clearly this headwind did not do this, and Korean coast guards never regulated or followed up to any of the drills or training. But that still doesn't explain why the ship sank.

Well, we have the overloading of the cargo, we have the ballast water, but there's actually more. All of that is making the balance of this boat just unstable, okay? It's becoming more and more top-heavy. The center of the gravity is not good right now, but it was worse because Chong and Jin bought the Sol fairy from another company and modified it and added two more levels on top to accommodate passenger cabins, which would

bring in more money for them, raising up the center of gravity even more, making it extra top heavy which you don't want. They also underwent major renovations to create an art gallery, where you guessed it. They housed Mr. Yubiongung's art, or should I say, Ah, his art, that he would sell to them at inflated prices. In the boat? In the boat, there was an art gallery,

with, oh, also, more weight was added because they added these marble slabs, thick marble slabs to showcase his work. And the company knew that what they were doing was dangerous. You can't even act like they were ignorant because it was discovered that between 2003 and 2011, Chong and Jin had five crashes prior to the sinking of this hoar ferry. It was even recommended that their license be suspended or revoked, but that never happened. They actually purchased more fairies after 2011.

They were also asked in 2003 to stop using the Mangoli channel because you don't know what you're doing in there. You guys were in an accident in there. But they continued to use it because it shaves off a precious seven miles on the trip to Teju, which is seven miles a fuel that they're saving on. Also in 2011, Chong-Azien Company tried to board a passenger ferry, I think in the Han River, where it's during holiday season.

The maximum capacity for that ferry was 200 people. They tried to board 500 and the only reason that a tragedy didn't occur is because passengers on board threatened to riot. They were like, no, you're not going to board that many people this is insane. But that's how blatant they were in bending the rules and putting lives in danger. Doc employees had even complained that any time they helped load or unload this hair wire, it would just roll around in the water. Company officials decided that hair wire should was sold because of the complaints and safety concerns,

but that was vetoed by Mr. billionaire Yubingham himself. The executives started repeating the new mantra for the company which was, load as much cargo as possible. None of the cargo was ever chained or lashed down, meaning it would just smash around. The saddest part to all of this is that all the overloading of this heur It brought in an extra $3 million. That is $10,000 for every passenger that died. That is it. $10,000 for a life.

What's insane is that there's regulators for these things. You can't just start a maritime company and be like, okay, well, I'm going to do whatever I want on my boats. There's regulators. The Korean Register of Shipping was an agency that's responsible for these things. They never followed up or facilitated inspections. Thankfully, many of those inspectors and regulators are in prison. And so now, you know, we know that Mr. U-Bing and his children, the billionaire kids, if you guys have watched the last episode, they were also in prison and Mr. U, the billionaire, was found suspiciously dead in his apricot orchard during the nationwide hunt for him immediately

after this. Oh, that was the time. Yes. Like, right after this, everyone was is like what the hell is going on with Chong Ajin. They're like who owns Chong ajin? Oh the major shareholders this random company will who owns that company? There was a manhunt. Now it is Speculated and I think all these people should be in jail by the way, but it is speculated that the manhunt for them was a very smart tactic for the president park at the time because she was putting a lot of heat on the family versus government

response. She was saying, I mean, government response was bad, but like, this is the reason it even sunk in the first place. Yeah. So, the corruption and competence design in there, what about the Coast Guard? I mean, I don't think I need to reiterate how badly they dropped the ball on this, but it was horrendous. Like, they should be ashamed to even wear uniform.

The first rescue vessel, Coast Guard vessel, one, two, three, they went to the ferry and they waited 20 minutes before they even rescued the captain. Because they were like, well, we got here, but we don't know what to do. So they just sat around until someone was like, I guess you could send a small boat and try to rescue someone. Do you see anyone?

Like, can we see some people on dock on the deck? They're like, okay. It was also revealed that the Coast Guard not only refused to rescue people essentially, but they made it harder for civilians or other nations to help, right? So when civilians came and they're like, I'm gonna try to rescue people,

the Coast Guard was like inspecting their stuff. We can have their stuff. I don't think you can, you shouldn't do that. Where's your license? Do you have a fishing license? Or were you out here illegally fishing? I'm trying to save people. I'm trying to do your job. They're like the parking ticket police and people are dying.

They also were so bad. Eventually, once it was deemed that everyone was dead, the US Navy and a lot of their professional divers were brought in to recover a lot of the bodies that were hard to find. The US Navy took one look at how the Korean Coast Guard was handling things and said unless you fix this list of insanely abysmal conditions of safety, we are not sending a single American in there. safety, we are not sending a single American in there. One more time.

So the US Navy and professional divers were finally after like months, asked to come in and rescue some bought not rescue, but recover bodies. And the US said, okay, fine, we'll go take a look. The Navy looks around the where the ferry had sank. They have a list of the most egregious safety violations that they'd ever seen. And they're like, we are not sending a single American into the water unless you fix all of this first. And the Korean ghost card was like, then I guess we'll just figure it out ourselves. They just refused to make it safe for anyone to dive. It was bizarre.

The US Navy was like, this is bizarre. Just how unprofessional and unsafe and ultimately how annoying you're making this and impossible for people to even help you. You can't do your job, but now're making this and impossible for people to even help you. Like you can't do your job but now you're making it impossible for me to do your job. Ridiculous. Now another thing about the Coast Guard, remember the MookPoke Coast Guard where the first helicopter comes and saves someone, right? Well another helicopter comes in to save people and they don't really ever save people because he's just a helicopter driver.

He actually asked the head chief of the Mukpo Kostkar to get in his helicopters so that they can save people and the chief was like, oh, I'm really tired from last night's work and I feel like the helicopter noise is going to give me a headache. So he just sent one of his officers who just circled around the ferry the whole time. And then once all of this starts getting leaked, you know what a lot of these entities do? They start deleting files, mass deleting files, and the chindual authorities that were also involved,

they actually went as far to delete all their CCTV footage from inside their government office building the day of the incident. So at first, only low ranking officials and government officials were investigated and prosecuted. The families were enraged because, let's be real, in the hierarchical Korean society, you think this low level intern is making the shots?

Like, he's making the calls. He's like, no, we're not sending divers. And you think so? No, absolutely not. So they pushed and pushed. And in the end, President Park was facing so much heechi announced a plan to break up and defund the Korean Coast Guard. She created a new department, but honestly,

it's just a PR move. I'm sure most of the Coast Guard was moved to that new department. And the next President, President Moon, would just revive the Coast Guard in 2017. So nothing really changed. Many more arrests were made, more than 150 regulators, crew members, ship inspectors and officials were indicted, including the captain of this howard fairy.

He was charged with murder. And he said, I bow my head and I just thought if people were leaving the fairy without the proper equipment, they would drown or drift away in the water. So that's why he told them to stay put. Why the fuck don't you stay put then? Yeah, because he wasn't wearing a life vest

when he was rescued. So why don't you stay put? My thing is, listen, with that much guilt and also public hate and scrutiny and a criminal trial, I would rather have died on the boat. So I just think it's so fascinating that some people have such a strong will to live that you would rather kill people to live

Nobody cared what he had to say in the end he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment He was later acquitted and received 36 years in prison instead. What? Yeah, he was saying he was saying okay everyone is shifting even in the criminal trials is crazy Everyone is shifting blame so he's shifting the blame and saying, yes, I shouldn't have left the boat. I shouldn't have given these orders, but ultimately everybody died because the Coast Guard didn't rescue them.

The Coast Guard is saying everybody died ultimately because they were told to stay in their cabins. So this is what they're doing. I know, this is what they're, he looks so disgusted right now. This is what they're doing. Wow, like just for that, I think he deserves another life sentence on top.

Yeah, like just the audacity of these things. Yeah. So there were criminal charges levied against 399 people, including the imprisonment of 154 people. Six survivors from Tanwan High School were subpoenaed for their testimony during the criminal proceedings, and they said, a fairy with about 300 passengers. Most of them students is sinking fast, but instead of staging full-out rescue efforts,

the crew members are nowhere to be seen, and the Coast Guard is just watching from afar. 30 students lined up for the emergency exit. The rescue teams didn't arrive, so we started jumping into the water, but eventually the water got too close, and the emergency exit was no longer available to open. We were waiting to jump.

We saw the Coast Guard within Arms Reach. They were on the other side of that emergency exit. And we were screaming at them. That we're right here, but they just watched. Parents were understandably infuriated with all of this, with all these people and entities, but there was still the problem of the missing bodies. So by the summer of 2014, more rescue teams were sent in, and bodies, at first, there were more found,

and of course, it was feeling further in between, but at one point, a body was found in an area that the divers already claimed that they had searched multiple times. So let's say they said, they searched Room B on the third floor. They said I researched that like 10 times and then a body was found by a rescue diver in Room B on the third floor. So of course it brings the question of competency of the recovery efforts

yet again. Another body was found a high school student in a bathroom that had allegedly already been searched 13 times according to official records. So what the hell is going on here? 13 times it showed that it was searched by the Coast Guard. The distrust was only growing stronger and it's not just people. The divers that are losing the trust of the parents, but it's also the Coast Guard Forensics teams. So the way that they would do it is these Coast Guard divers would dive into each room of each level and they would collect a water sample. They would bring this water sample up and then collect another water sample at the surface

of the water. They would then test these water samples and I guess there are certain bacteria or something in the water they are looking for that indicates there are human remains in that room. But if it's a match to the surface water, that means that there is no corpse in that area. So they said they checked at 13 times. The bathroom water was tested two to three times, and each time it showed that it was the same and consistent as the surface water. A volunteer diver found the girl in the bathroom.

It is heavily implied that these Coast Guard divers were lazy and just collected two samples from the surface of the water and said one was from the bathroom down in the boat, one was from the surface water, oh there are a match, there's nobody in there. We're doing so well. Nothing, I mean nothing is going right. The authorities didn't get one thing right and the dives were getting even more dangerous and there are actually a lot of more deaths that are associated with this, that are not including like the 300 on board. A Navy officer was injured and passed away, an undying Marine named Mr. Lee, passed away during a dive, which I know that we talked badly about undying,

but that's the company, not the employees problem. He was actually diving when he just lost contact with everyone on surface. So his colleagues went in into the water, he was found dead. Yeah, his air supply cords were tangled and he was unconscious without his diving equipment on. It's not really clear what happened. An X-ray of his chest showed no irregularities, but a scan showed that his skull was filled with air. Now a few weeks later, another civilian diver passed away. July of 2014 a helicopter from rescue operations crashed killing all five officers on board and injuring a high school student.

Wait, when was this? July 2014. Why is there a high school student? I don't know if they were on there to help with like guidance or something. But yeah, there was another death linked to the sinking that shocked a lot of people. The vice principal of Tanwan High School, vice principal Kang, he was found hanging from a tree near Tindal Island. So this is the island where all the parents had gathered. And it said that he was the leader of this school trip. He was in charge of the kids's safety, he was rescued, but over 250 of his students were not. He wrote in his note that he feels guilty and he

wants to take responsibility for what happened. He wrote that the trip was his idea and he cannot live without knowing where his students are. He wrote in the letter that he wonders if he could still be their teacher on the other side. In death. He asked his ashes to be scattered around where the ferry went down. Now the sad part is before his death a lot of parents took their anger out on him and so did a lot of Korean news media outlets like a lot of adults but when he passed students and survivors alike they went to his memorial in uniform and paid their respects and said he was an ethics teacher. So I wonder if it was really hard for him.

He was a good person and he really cared for students. I don't think anyone should be blaming him. Again, another instance where I feel like a child is sometimes more wise than an adult. After the memorial, the hers carrying his body circled around the school one last time. He was survived by his wife and three children. At least three parents have taken their own lives after losing their children in this Howard Ferry. One of the fathers took his life on the one-year anniversary of this Howard Ferry tragedy.

Many families have completely disintegrated completely. I mean, divorce fallen into addictions, financial distress. One mom said, you just have to cry when it's hard. There's no way around it. No one, nothing, nothing can console you or help you. When I miss my son, I go lie in his bed and I hug his pillows and I smell his smell and I cry. Many, many families have left their children's room exactly the way it is. Not touching a single thing, almost as if these students are gonna walk in through their door with their backpack. Most families hate spring. This is like April is like the best season in South Korea. They hate it. One victim's mom said her husband, the victim's father, has these intense

nightmares and she said, my husband constantly has nightmares kicking his leg, even grabbing me by the collar. And one night when I hugged him, he just let out these screams, and he cried like a baby. He just looks so lonely. Many siblings of victims fell to self-harm and depression. One sister has her birthday on April 19th, and for years, it was too hard, too painful for her to even celebrate. And for the first time, she asked her parents if they would like to join her for dinner for her birthday. So it's been very rough for these families, rescue personnel, but also the survivors. Survivors guilt is a scary, scary thing. I mean, I think it's confusing.

Like how do you even process that type of emotion? There was a 71 year old woman who was eating breakfast when she heard screaming. She saw people just sliding down the floor so she grabbed a railing and saw everyone tumble like dominoes. She remembers going into shock, but this young man grabbed her arm and screamed, come on, hold on to me tightly. She was trying to let go and slide down with everyone because she was so exhausted, she's 71, but she's like, no, no, no, I can't, I can't hold on any longer.

She said she was exhausted, but this young man never gave up on her and kept holding her arm. He grabbed her and pulled her up, he failed, so he pulled her up again, and this time it worked. He escorted her to the rescue boats, and she would not have made it out without him. She wanted to ask for his name, but it was so chaotic, he was just gone. Her four friends, she was traveling with, for like this tigeu trip, her four friends died.

She suffered a broken back and she said, you know, I'm grateful, I wanna thank that young man, I wanna buy him a meal or at least hold his hand or give him a hug like, what else can a lady like me do? But how could it be that can a lady like me do? But how could it be that an old woman like me survives? And all these young people are still in there. It is such a shame.

Civilians very early on realized that they were being lied to, so they tried to show their support to the parents with yellow ribbons. Even while news outlets are still lying, civilians tied yellow ribbons everywhere to show their support, to show parents we know and we are supporting you. Since then, yellow ribbons have been used to symbolize mourning for this howard fairy victims, but it almost now becomes synonymous with skepticism against the government and standing up to corruption. A lot was exposed about how high government officials, when this case broke, like how

President Park was unavailable for up to seven hours during the initial incident. So not only was she unavailable, but her and her administration falsified schedule records to show that she was on official duties at the time which she was not. Which even if you're on official duties, I'm sorry, your nation's children are dying on a boat, get it together, it can wait. She just wasn't involved, I guess nobody, I don't know if she wasn't alerted or I don't know if she wasn't making enough calls so now all these officials are covering for her or her administration is covering for her.

Now President Park's administration was also exposed for bullying and threatening reporters and news networks for reporting on the truth. They even indicted a Japanese reporter who shied on her for handling this tragedy in the way that she did, and Japan slammed South Korean prosecutors and the chief cabinet secretary of Japan said, freedom of press should be respected, and that indictment was far out of the norms of the accepted wisdom in the international community. So it's clear, the president cares about her appearance domestically and oddly very much so internationally and that's it.

And when she decided she was sick of people calling her out for her vile disgusting behavior, she said this about this hewar tragedy. It's time to overcome the pains and hardship from this hewar incident and move on to build a new South Korea. We cannot stay trapped in the sadness and frustrations that have gripped us for the past year. At this point, bodies were still being recovered. Not everyone has been put to rest yet. She was later impeached for corruption. This is a big part of it. Her ratings dropped drastically

after this. And shamanism oddly, her ratings dropped drastically after this. And shamanism oddly, where the reasons that she was impeached, we have a video on it, but anyway, not a great person. In the end, nine bodies were still missing in the incident, and the parents stood by each other to make sure those victims came home to be laid to rest. Which would ultimately lead to this heiwere being salvaged from the bottom of the sea floor, but it took a very long time to get there. The parents requested that this heiwere ferry be salvaged immediately because evidence

the bodies are intact. We need to do this, right? There are speculations that the government went out of their way to come up with a million reasons on why this was impossible. It's theorized that they were scared that the evidence would show incompetence. One big thing that got a lot of people mad was that out of 172 survivors, more than half of them were rescued by fishing boats and other civilians. And or commercial boats that had nothing to do with the government.

One survivor said, I wonder why the rescuers who first got to the ship didn't do anything about 100 or 200, I think, were trapped inside. They were just picking up the ones at the top. Can we talk about the salvaging of the ferry real quick? Okay, this is crazy. Two months, I think it was like two months after the sinking of the ferry. Seven private companies brought in proposals.

So this happens a lot with these, sometimes natural disasters, sometimes national disasters. These private companies will bring in proposals, and it was seven maritime companies that said, hey, we have a way to salvage the ferry. This is how we're going to do it. This is option A, this is option B, this is option C, and this is how much we would charge the government to do it.

Thank you, that's our proposal. It's almost like a government bid. All these companies are trying to get this deal so that they can salvage the ferry. Now, one company in particular had a very unique plan. The problem with salvaging this ferry was not, oh, let's just lift it up by cranes and then bring it ashore.

It's not like that. It's so complicated because you have bodies in there. You have evidence in there. You wanna keep these bodies as intact as possible. So there's a lot that you're working with and it's in the channel, the mainboard channel. So there's a lot. So their plan was to tilt the boat onto its side again. Because right now it was like inverted tilted to its side, crane it onto a floating vessel and salvage it there. That was like their plan, right? The government

reads this proposal like two months after the sinking. Everyone says, when are you going to salvage the boat? They said, we have to do tests. We have to find the perfect solution. You guys, you don't understand because you don't know, but it's so hard. You know, this is in the water. It's very, very sensitive issue. We need to make sure none of the evidence gets lost. We need to make sure the bodies are intact. So it's gonna take some time. We need to do a lot of tests. A year later, the government comes out and says, after a year of that, we have amazing news.

We have found the best solution. They take credit for the solution that they had on their desks two months after the sinking and they pretty much copy that proposal word for word. And that was exposed by New Stoppa. Parents of victims gathered together in front of government buildings to stage a hunger strike. Not for money, but for the truth.

They just wanted answers on how something like this could have happened. For months, the country mourned with them. And there's a moving story about a father who ate nothing but water and salt for 46 days. The president still had some supporters, super conservatives that came out to eat pizza and fried chicken in front of the parents who were hunger striking. I don't know why they defended the president like that's your mom or something. I don't know why anyone defends any politician regardless of what their beliefs are so vehemently like I mean it's crazy When parents stated I don't need money compensation or trauma therapy. I just need the truth. Please that's all and

He formally bowed in front of lawmakers begging for them to help Families of victims even shaved their heads in public in a demonstration. They just wanted to put their family members to rest and the government just kept asking so you want compensation? No, we want you to find our family members. Finally, the ferry was salvaged three years later. There were nine missing passengers at that point and only partial remains would be found in the salvaging. Many of the victims were put to rest a thousand days after the tragedy. But by the end of October 2018, five people are still missing. Two 16-year-old students, a 57-year-old teacher, a 48-year-old father, and this seven-year-old

boy, remember the older brother of the six-year-old sister, they are still missing. The families of all the victims would receive approximately $177,000 for each victim lost, which is absolutely nothing. I mean, first of all, they didn't even want it in the first place, but it's absolutely nothing. 71 days after the sewers sinking, survivors returned to school, and before the tragedy, the sophomore class of Tan-1 had 325 students. Now there were 75 in that class.

All 75 were provided group therapy as part of the class time. 10 counselors were brought in to be readily available. And students at Tan-1 said, every student here knows someone who's died or has gone missing. Like just imagine the depth, like the web of trauma left behind. One student says, our school feels so empty now. It's not an environment where we can study. I just, I wake up every morning hoping it's a lie, but it's not.

And I will say that when tragedy does strike, Korea is a nation that at least the civilians come together. The government, wow. But the civilians do come together. In honor of this hair tragedy, all K-pop groups, every single one stopped the release of all new music and promotions. The whole entertainment industry was at a standstill. Most industries in South Korea were at a standstill. There were no ads, no promotions for anything. And once the morning period was over, BTS came back with a song called Spring Day, directly inspired by Sewar.

The translated lyrics read, I miss you even though I'm looking at your photo. Time is a cruel thing. I want to go to the other side of the earth holding your hand. How long do I have to wait? How many nights do I have to pass? To see you? to meet you? Until spring day comes again, until the flowers bloom again.

Please stay, please stay here a little longer. Another K-pop artist dedicated his concert to a fan that was had purchased tickets to be there, but she passed on this hair fairy. Shin Youngjae, a four men finished and produced a song called You Whom I Love, and the song was written by one of the teenagers that passed on this hewar. His name is Idaun, and he wanted to be an artist one day. He plays the guitar, he writes his own lyrics,

and his idol, his role model in life was Xinjiangje. After this hewar tragedy, his parents reached out, just not really expecting anything, but he finished the song and performed it in honor of all the victims. The lyrics translated are, to you who has suffered so much, you went through a lot, right?

I want to hold you in my arms, and right now I hope you're dreaming sweet dreams. But we're sleepless at night thinking of you. I wish you could relax, but just know that I will always be here with you right next to you. Many artists and idols wore yellow ribbons during performances to honor the victims.

But I will end the very long video with this. A family member of one of the victims was asked, you know, why do you think this happened? Why do you think the kids weren't saved? He said, people asked that all the time. Why do you think they failed to protect the children? And I think above all, they just had no desire to protect the children. Golden time, all they did was lie. And it's interesting because I think it's frustrating that Americans can also relate to that exact thing of what's going on in our country and our schools. And it's just very frustrating to see that so many countries fail to protect their children

and they just don't seem like they care to do it. What are your thoughts on this case? And please stay safe and I will see you guys on Sunday. Bye. and please stay safe and I will see you guys on Sunday. Bye!