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| Investigators leave the Mokpo office of the Coast Guard with seized documents after searching it on suspicion of negligence, Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, Tuesday. / Yonhap |
By Kim Da-ye
The joint prosecution-police task force investigating the sinking of the ferry Sewol is probing the Coast Guard on suspicion of negligence.
The task force raided the Coast Guard's Mokpo office in South Jeolla Province, Monday, and seized daily logs and recordings of communications with the ferry.
It is also reviewing video clips of rescue efforts that revealed minimal, disorganized attempts to get people off the ship after the ferry began capsizing.
The Mokpo Coast Guard allegedly wasted time when it received an SOS call from a student of Danwon High School by asking for the latitude and longitude of the vessel's location.
The task force had searched the Jindo and Jeju Vessel Traffic Service Centers (VTS) to determine whether they properly monitored the Sewol, which had been out of control for more than 10 minutes before the accident was reported.
The VTSs are run by the Coast Guard and belong to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
While the progress of the task force's investigation has largely been kept secret, the Coast Guard's inability to deal with the accident was laid bare in video clips it released.
The rescue operations between 9:28 a.m. and 11:18 a.m. were captured in 50 short, high-definition video recordings.
The Sewol sent a distress call at 8:55 a.m., and the recordings show the rescue team arrived at the scene about 30 minutes later.
It shows one helicopter hovering above the sinking ferry and one rubber boat travelling between the ferry and a Coast Guard ship, carrying fewer than 10 people at a time.
The deck of the vessel is empty because passengers were told to stay inside their cabins. The Coast Guard first evacuated people from the bridge, who turned out to be crewmembers of the Sewol.
After 10 a.m., more small boats were seen around the ferry. Coast Guard officers sailed a ship close to the sinking vessel, broke windows and took people out. By 10:39 a.m., however, the ship had capsized completely.
Observers raised questions about why the Coast Guard released the recordings and why they were cut into short clips.
Ahn Sang-don, the head of the task force, told reporters that it was unusual to release these.
The Coast Guard explained in a statement that the video was taken by an officer on the rescue boat with his mobile phone. When the task force asked the Coast Guard to submit any photos or videos taken during the early stages of the rescue operation, it handed in a memory chip on April 22, the statement said. The accident took place on April 16.
The Coast Guard said that journalists learned about the recordings that show crewmembers evacuating ahead of passengers and had asked why it had not released them.
After one news outlet published a story about these suspicions, the Coast Guard said, the commissioner general ordered the recordings to be released to clear up any doubts.
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