By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
There are two big ``what ifs'' surrounding the assumed deaths of nine crewmembers of a sunken fishing boat mobilized to search for missing naval personnel from the destroyed frigate Cheonan last week. Two of the fishermen have been found dead and seven are still missing.
But some critics point out that they might have been saved if the Coast Guard had sent a rescue team to the scene earlier, or if the crewmembers of a Cambodian-registered freighter which apparently collided with the boat had helped instead of fleeing the scene.
The Kumyang 98 fishing boat sunk Friday night after an apparent collision with the freighter in the area off the western sea, where the naval frigate Cheonan sank.
Incheon Coast Guard said it sent a rescue team to the scene an hour later as it mistook the fishing boat, Kumyang 97 for the sunken Kumyang 98.
After receiving a distress signal at around 8:30 p.m., Friday, the Coast Guard called the captain of the Kumyang 97 who confirmed his ship was safe.
Officers only realized that they had contacted the wrong boat one hour after the Kumyang 98 sank. The mistake delayed rescue operations for about one and a half hours.
The 99-ton fishing boat, which carried nine, was tasked by the authorities to help search for any survivors from the 1,200-ton Cheonan.
The Coast Guard intercepted the Cambodian-registered 1,472-ton freighter, Taiyo-I, about four hours after the incident, and, are questioning the ship's captain and crew who were steering the ship toward the Chinese coast. They are suspected of having fled the scene without trying to rescue the Korean ship's crewmembers.
Officers found scratches and a dent in the bow of the freighter, apparently caused by the collision with the fishing boat.
The Coast Guard said the captain of the Taiyo-I has not admitted his ship had hit the boat.
It said an underwater search will be carried out to see if there are other signs of a collision, adding that it would take more than 10 days to file a lawsuit against the Cambodian ship owner for the incident.
Police identified the two recovered bodies as those of 55-year-old Korean Kim Jong-pyong and 35-year-old Indonesian Yusuf Haaefa. They were found floating 50 kilometers southwest of Daecheong Island
The seven others, including another Indonesian national, were still missing as of Sunday. The seven are skipper Kim Jae-hoo, 48; chief engineer Park Yon-joo, 49; Lee Yong-sang, 46; Ahn Sang-chol, 41; Chung Bong-jo, 49; Huh Suk-hee, 33; and Cambang Nurcahyo, 36.
kswho@koreatimes.co.kr
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