 A ferry, 2.7km north of Pyongpung-dong, South Korea is sending out a distress call at 8.55 in the morning. It is the morning of the 16th of April 2014 and the 6,825 tonne vessel and some 476 people aboard are in a dire situation. The ferry is leaning and is quickly becoming apparent that it will capsize. Many passengers have been told to stay in their quarters and this will prove to be a fatal order. In just a few hours the ship would be completely under water taking 304 lives with it and a recovery mission would result in 8 rescue workers being added to the death toll. The event would spark outrage throughout South Korea, not only from the disaster but from the reporting of the event in the media. Today we are looking at the MV Sewol disaster. Our story starts not in South Korea in the 2010s but in Japan in the early 90s. It is 1994 and a Japanese company are taking delivery of a new ship. She was built by the Hayashinki Shipbuilding and Engineering Company limited of Nagasaki Japan which is around here on a map. She is named Ferry Naminé and is put into work transporting cargo and passengers. The ship boasts a length of 145.61m and weighing in at some 6600 gross weight tonnes she is a reasonable investment for the operator who works under the name the A-Line Ferry Company. She has a capacity of around 850 persons including crew and around 90 cars and 60 trucks. The vehicles are driven onto the ferry on one deck and above there are passenger accommodations. And thus she is given the ROPEX designation. Roll on, passenger carrying. But as with all designs compromises have to be made and in this case is a high centre of gravity. You see for the vessel to make as much money as possible you need as many vehicles and passengers to be crammed aboard. To fit more vehicles on the transport decks passenger accommodation is stacked on top. And for the space for cabins, restaurants and bars you are ultimately limited by the length of the vessel unless you stack more and more accommodation on top of one another. But the more you stack the higher the centre of gravity is and thus greater limitations on manoeuvrability as there is a greater chance of the ship toppling over. This issue is not new and has always plagued ship designers and a good balance is usually met and for the ferry the fine balance was achieved. For her time with the Japanese firm her operations were uneventful and offered years of travel free sailing but by the end of her second decade of service she is getting tired and dilapidated. The A-line had a replacement on order and as such they needed to offload the old vessel into the second hand market. Although old and not in the best day to repair she is still worth a decent amount of money and could offer many more years of service to a new owner. She was sold off to a new owner Chong Hijin Marine Company in 2012 at a price tag of $11.6 billion. Under her new ownership she was renamed and she underwent an extensive refurbishment program. In order to squeeze more profit out of her new acquisition her refurbishment would also involve extensive modifications to allow extra capacity for passengers. This added extra passenger cabins on the third, fourth and fifth floors. In total this loaded up an additional 239 tonnes of weight adding to the already high centre of gravity. The ship was checked over by the Korean Registry of Shipping. Part of the process and as a condition of its licence the authorities reduced the maximum amount of cargo that could be carried from 1450 tonnes down to 987 tonnes. As well as increasing the amount of ballast needed from 1,333 tonnes to 1,703 tonnes. This was all to try and keep the ship stable but as we will find out later the seawalls owners didn't heed these requirements. Almost as soon as the ink dried on the seawalls licence an additional 37 tonnes of weight was added. This was marble to tart up the gallery on the bridge deck. An issue that would be highlighted later was that even though the seawall had restrictions on their max weight they were not known by the Korea Shipping Association which is responsible for managing ferries or the Korean Coast Guard which were responsible for overseeing the shipping association. The industry essentially relied on honesty of vessel owners and like with most things greed can get in the way of that. For now the refurbished heavier seawall was pressed into service on 15th March 2013. Her working week would involve three round trips from Incheon to Jeju. Each one way journey took around 13 and a half hours to complete the 264 miles. The ship would have an interim inspection as per her licence in February 2014 and this was passed with no issues highlighted. Then no real issues came about during her service completing around 241 journeys but trouble was on the horizon where greed and incompetence would bring tragedy to South Korea. It is the 15th April 2014 and the seawall is being loaded up for another trip from Incheon to Jeju. At the helm of the seawall today is 40 year veteran 69 year old captain Lee Joonsek. Although experienced he isn't the seawall's regular captain and has been hired in on a one year contract. Many of the 33 crew that accompanied Lee were temporary or part time staff. The seawall's journey is set to begin at 5.30 in the evening but a thick fog has descended upon the port. The ship is loaded with 2,142.7 tonnes of cargo including her total of 185 cars and trucks over twice the allowable weight. To add further issue parts of the loads weren't properly secured allowing it to move around the deck. Her ballast tanks hadn't been readjusted from her previous journey which resulted in the vessel not being properly balanced. The seawall was transporting 443 passengers not particularly different from the normal but unusually 325 of these were students on a field trip from Damwon High School. Due to weather conditions the ship was told to hold tight until the fog had passed by. Eventually and to much relief of Lee and his crew the go ahead was given at 9pm. And off she went into the darkness of the night the only ship to do so that evening. As the night gave way to the morning of the 16th of April the vessel was approaching the main goal channel. This section of water has one of the most rapid and unpredictable currents in the Korean Peninsula. On the bridge are 3rd mate Park Han-Kyul and Helmsman Chu Jun-Ki. They had started their shift at 7.30 in the morning. The vessel is travelling at around 20 knots or 24mph. Around 50 minutes later and at around 3mph from the notorious channel Park orders Cho to take over manual control of the steering system from the autopilot. Due to the issues in the channel caution is needed but it is a frequently used area and the conditions are not too bad. At the time the seawall is on a course of around 137 degrees. By 8.27 the ship is in the channel and many of the passengers are preparing for breakfast although Captain Lee is in his cabin resting. Park orders Cho to turn the ship from the now 135 degrees to 140. Parkman checks the radar to see the new course and then orders another turn to 145 degrees. At 8.48 in the morning the ship started to list a starboard which led the bow to turn to the right. In an attempt to correct this Park gave the order to turn the wheel to port. The ship didn't respond now the testimony of the two on the bridge would differ as to whether the 145 degree order was given or if Cho accidentally turned water starboard. It would later be found that the seawall had turned actually to a heading of 150 degrees. The ship continued to list and this was added to by the unsecured cargo moving to the side closest to the water. This killed the restorative force required to rewrite the ship. For now greatly listing seawall took on water through her side door of the cargo loading bay and the car entrance located at her stern. At 8.50 am she was leaning at 30 degrees to port, throwing off-duty staff from their bunk beds including Captain Lee who immediately went to the bridge. Cho stopped the engines and ordered an evacuation of the engine room. By now more staff were on the bridge and Park was crying hysterically. With no engines the seawall began to drift sideways and the listing continued. Over the PA system announcements to passengers were made to stay put in their cabins. The first emergency calls came not from the crew but actually from one of the school children aboard as a passenger. The student Choi Do-kha dialed 119 and was put through to the Geo-lenam Do South Geola province fire station where Choi informed them of the seawall capsizing. At 8.58 the troll vessel number 123 was dispatched by the South Korean Coast Guard. Meanwhile the bridge on board the seawall sent out a distress call to the GJU VTS and asked them to notify the KCG as the ferry was rolling and in danger at 8.55 am. At 9.07 am the vessel traffic service asked the seawall if it was sinking to which the Strickins ship replied yes. This was followed by the seawall saying our ship is listing May 4. The VTS sent out a call to any other ships nearby to find out if anyone could see the seawall in which one confirmed. By 9.18 am the ship was now leaning 50 degrees. Just a few minutes later the VTS ordered the crew to tell passengers to put on floatation devices. All throughout this the announcement to stay put continued. A couple more minutes went by before VTS asked the captain to decide to evacuate or not. Evacuation was ordered at 9.30 am but not all the passengers heard this leaving many still in their cabins waiting as previously instructed. The seawall was reaching a 60 degree tilt. VTS ordered all nearby ships to drop lifeboats and to assist with the evacuation. At 9.38 am communications cut off between the seawall and the outside world. At 9.45 am a first helicopter arrived to start lifting people away from the disaster area as between 150 and 160 people had jumped into the water. During the sinking many had crewed rank beer instead of assisting and helping passengers off with many still at this point still in their cabins. Captain Lee and many of his crew abandoned the ship with Cho and the first and second mates being the first people to be rescued. Captain Lee was taken to safety at 9.46 am leaving behind the seawall and the many souls still aboard. Much of the students had continued to obey the wait and stay orders from the crew and by 10 am were losing much chance of survival. Some who had disobeyed the order had made their way out and were standing on the now nearly overturned hull. Rescue continued until 10.23 am when the side of the seawall disappeared beneath the waves leaving only the underside visible. In the media aftermath of the sinking the South Korean media reported that all aboard had been rescued but this was far from the truth as hundreds were still unaccounted for. As the morning dragged on the first body of a female crew member was recovered. Not long after Korea's Navy ship salvage unit was deployed to the scene. At 14.42 am 150 special forces personnel from the Republic of Korea Army special warfare command including 40 scuba divers were sent for the rescue operations. The afternoon gave way to the evening and now with hundreds of personnel involved in the operation examinations of the exposed hull were ceased at 200 hours due to visibility and safety concerns. The following day the 17th of April undyne marine industries a privately held company started to search for missing passengers. In total over 500 divers were involved in the operation but again the rescue was called off at 1400 hours due to poor weather. The next morning air was pumped into the ship to try and help create air pockets for any survivors. Some divers entered the hull but could only get as far as the cargo hold meaning no one was rescued on the third day. On the fourth day the disaster took another victim. A petty officer involved in the rescue they were injured and had succumbed to their wounds but this wouldn't be the last rescue work of fatality. On the 21st of April a remote controlled underwater vehicle was sent to the deck of the seawall. This would be followed by another on the 24th. These efforts did not yield much success and by May the writing was on the wall. But those who went down with the seawall were now victims and not those to be rescued. Two divers would die in May and two months later on the 17th of July a firefighting helicopter returning from the rescue operations crashed killing all five aboard. By the 22nd of July recovery operations had identified and removed 294 bodies leaving 10 to be found. Among the dead was student Choi Dook-Ha the same who had called the emergency services initially. The seawall would be recovered and salvaged a couple of years later where more of the victims would be found and identified. The event put the country into mourning as so many of the victims were children and the root cause being greed the public were out for those responsible. With South Korea's worst very disaster at their feet the government had to find out how and why the event unfolded as it did and also find out how 22 of the 33 crew seemingly escaped intact including the vital members responsible for the navigation of the ship. Almost immediately after the sinking Captain Lee was arrested on suspicion of negligence of duty, violation of maritime law and other infringements on the 19th of April. In South Korean law the captain is required to remain on board during evacuation something Lee clearly did not adhere to. Two other crew members a helmsman and the third mate were also arrested on suspicion of negligence and manslaughter. Just a few days later on the 26th of April 12 more were arrested this was the entire crew responsible for navigation. Captain Lee first mate Kang Won-sik second mate Kim Young-ho and chief engineer Park Ki-ho were indicted on the charges of homicide through gross negligence a crime that can carry a potential death penalty. The rest of the arrested were charged with lesser offenses of negligence and abandoning duty. On the 8th of May the chief executive of Chung Hee-jin Kim Han-sik was arrested and face charges of causing death by negligence. Four other company officials were also taken into custody. Yu Pyong-hung a former chairman of Chung Hee-jin went into hiding when his arrest warrant was issued. The authorities offered up a reward topping out of 500 million won. Yu would escape his day in court when his body was discovered in a plum field approximately 300 kilometers south of Seoul. His death although having foul play ruled out went unexplained due to the state of decay of his body upon discovery. The crew charged with the failings of the Seul disaster were convicted and sentences were handed down as life sentence for the captain, 10 years for chief engineer and 18 months to 12 years for the other 13 crew members. In the cases against officials for overloading of cargo Kim Han-sik Chung Hee-jin's chief executive was found guilty of negligence and received a 10-year prison term. Six other employees and a Korean shipping association official also received prison sentences. It seems that in South Korea you actually go to prison if you're found to be breaking the rules which is very similar to what we saw at the Sangpong department store but seemingly rare in other countries. The root cause of the disaster like many on this channel is greed and negligence. Greed in overloading the vessel with improperly secured cargo and negligence in the seawalls navigational crew by not correctly filling the ballast tanks carrying only 580 tons of ballast water making the vessel more prone to list and cap size. All of this was a deadly cocktail that was set off by undertaking the strange series of fatal turns which led to 304 deaths 250 of which were school children. This is a plain difficult production all videos on the channel are creative commons attribution share alike licensed plain difficult videos are produced by me john in a currently bright and clear corner of southeast london uk help channel grow by liking commenting and subscribing check out my twitter for all sorts of photos and odds and sods as well as hints on future videos i've got patreon and youtube membership as well so check that out if you fancy supporting the channel financially and all that's left to say is thank you for watching