4 dead at Taean's Marine Corps Camp
A parent of one of the students found dead cries over his son's body.
By Isaac Kim
The bodies of four of five missing high school juniors were found in Taean, South Chungchung Province, where they were attending a Marine Corps camp.
The Taean coastguard found the body of 17-year-old Lee Jun-hung at 6:05 a.m. and 17-year-old Jin Woo-suk at 6:20 a.m. on Friday morning. At 4 pm in the afternoon, they found two more bodies belonging to Kim Dong-han and Jang Tae-in. The four, along with one other had been missing for over 12 hours.
Lee and Jin were found six to seven meters off the shore, when the low tide cleared most of the water. Kim and Jang were spotted off the shores of Anmyeondo.
The parents of the students stayed up all night hoping for their sons’ survival and broke down into tears when the bodies were found.
One parent cried, “Why didn’t you save them yesterday? Why did it take you this long to find them?”
The coastguard mobilized four helicopters, 21 coastguard ships, 42 underwater search agents, 132 coastguards, the police, firefighters, the army, and the Marine Rescue & Salvage Association to investigate the incident.
The tragedy occurred during a training camp for 90 juniors from the Kongju National University High School.
There were only two instructors during their training exercise.
The instructors led them into the ocean for a water-based exercise.
However, the high tide suddenly brought in strong waves, which led the exercise into a disaster within 10 to 20 minutes.
Students began flailing and had trouble staying afloat. With no life vests, students could not keep their heads above the water.
The instructor on shore blew his whistle, shouting at the trainees to get back to shore.
Kim, a fellow student present at the exercise, recalled, “After I got out of the water, I realized a few people were missing. The instructors weren’t present, and the police were not informed of the accident until 7 p.m., when they asked us for our teachers’ phone numbers.”
The search is still ongoing for the fifth student who remains missing.