Acts of bravery emerge from pilloried ferry crew

Associated Press-MOKPO, South Korea (AP) — As the Korean ferry sank, some crew members provided his or her life jackets to passengers. One crew refused to vacate the ship until she moved the students off the ship.

US Navy assisting in Korean ferry sinking site
photo: US Navy / Adam D. Wainwright

She was later found dead. Some people been working from rescue boats to break windows with hammers and extract people stuck in cabins to safety. Almost a week after the wreckage of the South Korean ferry, with increasing outrage over a death count number that would ultimately come over 300, the public popular opinion against the crew of the Sewol has been savage and fast. "Cowards!" social media users roared. "Unforgivable, murderous," President Park Geun-hye said Monday about the captain and a few crew.

Some of the crew fled the ferry, including the captain, but not all. At minimum seven of the 29 crew members are missing or dead, and some of those who survived stayed at or near the ship to help passengers.
Much more than 100 people are verified dead and nearly 200 more are still missing.

Captain Lee Joon-seok told passengers to remain in their cabins as the ferry began sinking and filled with water.  He took at least half an hour to command an evacuation and apparently escaped on one of the first rescue life boats.


But passengers remember moments of quiet bravery from some of other crew members. Read more at