WEBVTT - The Sewol Ferry Disaster 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:07.680 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:13.399 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:15.600 Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is Stuff you 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:21.079 should Know, part of our ongoing marine disaster suite. I guess. 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:23.880 Yeah, I'm glad we took a break. It's good to 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:24.279 be back. 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:25.400 Yeah. 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:28.720 It's very sad, I mean, just sort of devastating topic today, 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:31.600 as they usually are. This one's especially sad. I think 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:35.599 it's more recent and involved kids. But yeah, we were 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:37.240 on a run there for a while and we took 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:40.640 a break, and now we're back with more maritime disaster Yeah. 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:44.479 In the Orang Madon short stuff, You're like, this is 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:45.480 it for a while? Man? 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.080 I think I did. I totally Can we stop with these? 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:54.480 Yeah? So yeah, the Sewell disasters what we're talking about. 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:58.200 Sewell was the name of a faery that went between 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.360 the southern tip of South Korea and Jaju, kind of 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:06.760 a tropical island resort, a resort island off of Korea, 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.480 and in twenty fourteen, on April sixteenth, actually we're releasing 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:16.280 this on the twelfth anniversary. With this tragedy, three hundred 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:20.440 and four people died, including two hundred and fifty eleventh 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:24.319 grade high school students who were on a class field trip. 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:29.679 Yeah, eleven of their teachers. Very sadly, one of the 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:33.520 teachers who survived took his life two days after this 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:38.280 disaster with you know, a case of sort of survivor's guilt. Yeah, 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:41.440 and it was very the one that really the thing 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.480 that really burns me up about this one is, you know, 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.680 it wasn't an iceberg or a bad storm. It was 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:52.440 it was all sort of human caused and even once 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.160 this thing started started listing and tilting to the side, 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:58.280 there was still plenty of time to rescue everyone, and 0:01:58.360 --> 0:01:59.680 it just didn't happen. 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.800 Right. It's like Oprah should walk up and be like 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:06.360 you're to blame, You're to blame, and you're to blame. 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:11.000 Like everyone was to blame except for the people who died. Essentially, 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:16.040 there's like it was just totally senseless. There was no 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.440 need for it, Like it could have been totally avoided. 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:24.040 And this had such an enormous impact on South Korean society. 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.840 They call it four sixteen because it happened on April sixteenth, 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.600 much the same way we call September eleventh. Nine to 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:34.480 eleven in the United States, And there was a public 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:38.320 survey that was done I think by PW that said, like, 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.200 what are the most important historical events in the history 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:45.720 of Korea? And the Sewel disaster was a close second 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:49.760 behind the Korean War. That's how important and how huge 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:53.079 of a sweeping impact this had on the entire society. 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:57.560 You know what, Emily's dad calls nine to eleven? 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.880 What nine? For real? 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:03.880 Yeah? 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:05.200 Is he being facetious? 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.120 No, that's just how That's how Rick rolls. He's got 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:09.480 his own language. 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.040 Does he. If so, if he breaks his legs as 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:13.880 he shout called nine to eleven. 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.040 I'm not sure. Uh, all right, that's probably the last 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:19.440 joke I'll tell I want to go ahead and get 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:20.000 one in there. 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:21.079 Okay, thank you. 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:26.320 Uh so, let's let's start the story here. Don Juan 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:29.679 High School is that's d A N W O N 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.240 not Don Juan like Don Juan DeMarco. It is a 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:35.280 public school. It's about an hour and a half outside 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:38.960 of Seoul. It's in a city called Ensan. And this is, 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.760 like you mentioned, a class trip. This is a sort 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:45.000 of an annual tradition where the eleventh graders go on 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.840 this trip to this gorgeous island which is also a 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:51.240 UNESCO Heritage Site, and I think we're gonna be doing 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:53.960 an episode on that pretty soon, right unscom Yep. 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:54.200 For sure. 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:56.600 And the whole idea is that they go before they 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.360 have to sort of buckle down and get ready for 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.280 their version of their the SAT, the c SAT, which 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.000 is what they have in Korea. So they go for 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.440 this great trip every year, sort of a last hurrah 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.280 before they start their senior year, and that's what they 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.200 set off for on the night of April fifteenth, twenty fourteen. 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.400 Yeah. Also, we need to do at least the short 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:19.760 stuff on the sea set. They call it the sun Jung, 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.559 which is it makes the SAT look like a walk 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:24.120 in the park. 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:24.480 Yeah. 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:28.120 Really, it's insane. I saw one question from it. It was like, 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.680 I don't know anyone who could answer this question. Oh wow, okay, yeah, 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:38.400 it'll be an interesting one. So they embarked for Jeju 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:42.400 from Incheon, like I was saying, and it was gonna 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:44.680 be an overnight journey. I think it's a thirteen hour 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:50.040 faery trip to Jaju. And there was a really heavy fog, 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.560 so much so that the teachers on the trip considered 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:56.920 like just canceling it. It was just it just seemed 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:02.040 that dangerous. And finally everyone read, including the crew of 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:05.160 the Seul and the teachers, that let's just go ahead. 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:08.839 Two and a half hours later, they finally set sail, 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:11.799 but they were the only commercial vessel to leave port 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.360 that night because that fog was so bad. 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:18.080 Yeah, and as you'll see, that was I guess we'll 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.039 go ahead list that as number one of ways that 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:23.479 this disaster could have been averted. A these kids not 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.719 going at all, but B they you know, they're trying 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:28.520 to go faster because they got a later start, and 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.080 that seems like it affected the disaster. 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:35.200 Yeah, for sure. The Suwal had also been around for 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.640 twenty years. It had served twenty years as a Japanese 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:43.240 ferry off Okinawa called the Namanui, which is a Shinto 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.279 shrine in Okinawa that looks over the sea and gives 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.760 blessings for safe trips to the ships going in and 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:54.560 out of port. And the ferry which was the Namanui, 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:58.800 was purchased and re christened the Sewal by chonghai Jin Marine, 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.600 which is the company that owned the ferry, and two 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:08.200 things to increase profits they expanded passenger decks to add 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:12.400 basically two more passenger decks, They expanded the cargo area, 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:17.520 and they essentially made this ship ripe for overloading. Yeah, 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:22.080 that's number one. Number two, the Korean government had recently 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.839 extended the life of ferry ships from twenty years to thirty. 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.120 The reason it got retired in Okinawa is because it's 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.359 just sensible to only let them go for twenty years. 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.000 In Korea South Korea, you could run them for thirty years, 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:39.160 which is why chung Hijin Marine bought that ship and 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:40.360 put it into service. 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:42.120 Yeah. I bet they got a pretty good deal on 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:43.039 it at that age, you know. 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:46.160 Yeah, I'm sure the o Canawans were like you sure 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:48.520 you want this, and they were like yeah. 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.560 So there were four hundred and seventy six total passengers 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.600 on board, but there was also like you said, it 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.640 was ripe for overloading, and that's what they did. They 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.360 had more than twenty one hundred tons of rate on board. 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.839 There were construction materials, There were cars and trucks. When 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.080 you see you know, video from sort of inside this 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:13.200 thing while it was pitching and tilting, you see like 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:16.880 huge work trucks like being slammed against the wall and 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.960 into other cars and things like that. In the end, 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.680 it was about a thousand tons over what its maximum 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:24.640 capacity was supposed to be, so. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:29.800 Like about almost fifty percent over Yeah, maximum capacity. That's insane, 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:34.440 and we'll explain how they got away with that eventually. So, 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:36.200 like you said, they were trying to make up for 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.119 lost time, so they sailed faster than they normally would 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:42.000 have to make it to Jaju on their schedule time. 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:46.240 Remember they left two and a half hours late. The 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:51.400 third mate was on the bridge in charge earlier that morning. Yeah, 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.200 it's not entirely inappropriate. This was like open sea. It 0:07:55.240 --> 0:08:00.480 should have been basically in nothing stretch. But the point 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:03.120 is that the captain, the first make, and the second 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:05.160 mate were not on the bridge. The third mate was 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:09.440 in charge, and the third mate ordered the quartermaster at 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.480 about eight forty five am to make a sudden turn. 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.680 I don't remember if it's port or starboard. And when 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:21.680 the ship made the turn, it turned really hard and 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:23.520 there was a horrible crashing sign and all of a 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:26.280 sudden it tilted. It listed in the water and I 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:28.400 think something like twenty degrees to start. 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.720 Yeah, so that's that's a bad start. It did not 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:35.880 right itself, because what had happened was, you know, a 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:37.800 lot of that stuff down there wasn't secured like it 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.480 should have been. And when I said, you know, trucks 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:43.199 went slamming against the walls and into other cars, that's 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:45.600 what happened. All this heavy stuff shifted in such a 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:47.400 way that it would not shift. 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:50.720 Back right exactly. So not only was it not going 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.360 to write itself, it was going to just keep listing 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:57.520 and listing and listening. And that's exactly what happened. There 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:01.520 is a short documentary I thought it was produced by 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:06.880 Laura Poetrous, which that's quality stuff. She did the essentially 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:13.920 the film for the Snowden Files and Citizen for the documentary. Anyway. 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:16.400 You can find it on YouTube. I think New Yorker 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:19.360 bought it. It's called In the Absence, and it is 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:24.040 this almost in real time, like twenty plus minute documentary 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.920 that shows the ship sinking and then against it puts 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:31.840 the like the conversations between all the people who are 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.199 supposed to be rescuing this and doing something about this, 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:40.160 and just puts on full display man the incompetence, the indifference, 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:46.480 the arrogance, the just the negligence, all of the enses, 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:50.320 all the bad ences, like are just on full display. 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.280 It's so shocking to hear this and see it and 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.160 know what happened and know who's inside there, and then 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:59.839 to hear what they actually did or didn't do to 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:01.880 to rescue them. 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.880 Yeah, like like tied to the minute. So you'll see, 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.920 you know, toward the end of this documentary, it's a 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.520 hard watch, but it's well well worth checking out. You'll 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:15.760 see like ninety five percent of this boat is underwater 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:18.920 and sunk with all these people on board, and you'll 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.800 hear in real time, like at that exact moment in time, 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.480 you know, the coastguard saying like you think we can 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:28.080 land a helicopter on this thing now and try and 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:30.400 get some of these people out, and other people that 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:32.240 are there, like I think, I don't think we can 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.120 land a helicopter on it anymore, And it's like it's 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:38.360 gone basically at that point. It's just it's infuriating to watch, 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:38.680 you know. 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:41.679 Yeah, even after that, the guy who's like, oh, that's 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:43.640 a shame that we can't land the helicopter that would 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:44.200 look really good. 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.760 Yeah, yeah, Yeah. 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:53.720 It's just disgusting. Right, So the kids on board they 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.840 all had smartphones twenty fourteen in South Korea. Every single 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.480 one of them had a smartphone, and there are a 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:04.319 lot of viving documents and texts from the kids on board. Yeah, 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:07.040 so we know a lot of what happened in the 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:09.880 first Like I think all the way up for like 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:14.200 almost an hour and a half after this ship listed 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:17.920 of what was going on, and at first the kids 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:21.240 were fairly calm. Twenty degree list is substantial, but it's 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:25.840 not panic time necessarily for everybody. It feels like people 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:29.320 are still in charge. Things are okay, but there's conversations 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:31.160 between the kids that are like, is this one of 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:34.320 those things where the only people who survive are the 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.719 ones who don't follow orders, you know, Like yeah, and 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.240 they're joking about how the ship is sinking and all that, 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.120 and little did they know that within an hour they 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:46.560 would all be dead, essentially from the ship actually sinking 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:50.000 and from just the terrible guidance or lack of guidance 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:51.440 from the people who were in charge. 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:54.960 Yeah. Well, the guidance was stay where you are, put 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.760 on your life best and stay in your cabin. There 0:11:57.800 --> 0:11:59.920 was silence for a little while and then when you know, 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:04.040 they came over the loudspeaker. They repeatedly, I think seven 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.400 different times as this thing was sinking, they were like, 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.280 stay in your cabins, stay in your cabins, and remain calm. 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:13.360 Parents were calling or students were calling their parents from 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.440 their phones. There was that brutal interview with a one 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.160 parent that it was a couple, but the mom was 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:24.600 like her one regret was she didn't say, like, stop 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:29.319 following their instructions, get out while you can. But as 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.839 you know, I just hated that because as a parent, 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:36.839 you aren't there. You don't know what's exactly happening, although 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:38.520 it was played out in real time on the news, 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:40.920 So you think that the people that are supposed to 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:42.240 be doing the right thing or doing the right thing. 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:44.200 So you want to tell your kid like, hey, listen 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:46.720 to what they're telling you, and not like, hey, don't 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:48.840 listen to what they're saying. Get out of there. 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:51.800 Yeah, go jump off the side of the ship. Yeah 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.240 you know, yeah, Like that's you can totally understand where 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:57.320 she's coming from. But I can also understand that that's 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:58.120 her greatest regret. 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:00.280 Oh yeah, I just hated it for her or to, 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:02.520 you know, all these years later to still feel that way, 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:02.720 you know. 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:07.640 Yeah. So eight fifty five am, ten minutes after the 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:15.680 ship turned and started to list, the Sewall crew makes 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.679 their first distress call. Three minutes earlier. The very first 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:22.319 distress call from the Sewall was made by one of 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:25.480 the students. Yeah, they called one one nine, which is 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.600 nine one one in Korea, and they said like, hey, 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:31.240 I'm on a sinking ship, Please send some help. And 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.840 at first you could tell the one one nine operators 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.880 like wait, what are you saying? Yeah, yeah, because they 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:38.760 were essentially like, so, wait, you're on a ship that 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.400 you're seeing a ship that's sinking, And the guys like, no, 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:44.320 I'm on a sinking chip like please send help. This 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.680 was three minutes before the crew ever did anything, like 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:49.200 like did anything about this. 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.400 Yeah, So they were ahead by three minutes. Over the 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.920 next half hour, there were a lot of calls from 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.960 the crew to all kinds of people. Coast Guard support 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.959 obviously they called. The crew was like, hey, we're trapped 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.320 on the bridge. We don't know what's going on with 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:09.160 the passengers. The ship is definitely sinking, So there was 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.240 no ambiguity about what was going on. And they said 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:17.000 to the coast Guard, like should we evacuate and they said, hey, 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.080 it's a captain's decision. That's why you have a captain 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:23.360 on board, basically, And that was over the next half 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:25.560 hour from those initial calls. In the middle of this, 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:30.240 at nine fourteen, they made the crew made distress calls 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:33.760 to local fishing boats like hey, anybody that's near us, 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.920 we need help right now, and a lot of them 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:37.480 showed up. 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:40.280 Yeah, I think there were some that had already showed 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.360 up even before the call. And half of the people 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:45.960 who were rescued, who survived the sinking of the Siu 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:49.600 All Ferry were rescued by civilian fishing boats. Yes, in 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.600 ten minutes. Ten minutes spanned half of the survivors were rescued. 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.640 This was twenty thirty I saw as much as forty minutes, 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.400 although I don't think that's right. Before the coast Guard 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:04.000 even showed up. These fishing boats were there rescuing people. 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.520 The first coast Guard boat, and I think the only 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.360 coast Guard boat bear that in mind, showed up at 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.080 nine thirty five. So this is fifty minutes after the 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:20.920 first the turn, and what forty minutes after the call 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.240 for help. The coast guard finally shows up. The ship 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:27.600 is at sixty degrees. Now, this is that's nuts. You're 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:32.920 like standing on the wall essentially, and the coast guard 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:35.400 did what the coast guard is supposed to do. The 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:37.800 crew did what they were supposed to do. The coast 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.400 guard evacuated the crew from the bridge and got away 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:45.800 from the ship. The crew left the ship, including the 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:50.560 captain who there's a very clear image of him being 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:55.440 assisted off of the bridge and onto the coastguard boat, 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.680 who had not very importantly given the order to evacuate 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:03.000 the ship. He abandoned ship and did not explain to 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.880 the passengers that they needed to get off of the ship. 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:08.960 Yeah, it's the worst thing a boat captain can do. 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.360 They're supposed to be the last person off, and this 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:14.800 guy was one of the first people off in his underwear. 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:18.520 This you know, you said the crew all got off, 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:21.680 It wasn't everybody. I think there were fourteen crew members 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:25.360 that were rescued at nine to forty seven am. A 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:28.200 few crew members, to their credit, went down with the 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.440 ship and were doing everything they could, so they were 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.800 you know, there were some heroic actions going on a 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:39.320 helicopter shows up around this time starts to rescue passengers, 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.720 but again a helicopter rescue. They're getting people off like 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:46.440 one at a time, lifting them to safety, and they 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.680 still these kids are still being told to stay in 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.000 their room. So it's not like everyone was on top 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:55.120 of the deck or you know, wherever they could be seen. Right, 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.000 most of them are still in their room. And then 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.920 they had life rafts. They had life rafts for like 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.960 eleven hundred people. There were forty four life rafts could 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:06.760 carry twenty five people each, and only one of them 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:08.360 was automatically deployed. 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:15.359 Right, So there is a point where the water is 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.280 starting to rush in so much that even somebody who's 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.240 been raised their entire life in a collective of society 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:25.080 to just follow the orders of the people in charge, 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:27.480 are going to leave their cabin, are going to stop 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.080 listening and leave their cabin. That finally happened, but by 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:33.960 this time it was much too late for most of them. 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:36.600 It's very, very hard to get out of a sinking 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.040 ship because the water rushes into every area that has 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:43.800 air to fill it up. There's a suction mechanism that 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.040 can create the movement of the water makes it less dense, 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:49.879 so you are likelier to sink. It's very hard to 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.439 get out of the inside of a sinking large ship, 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:56.800 and so there were stories of some of the survivors 0:17:57.240 --> 0:17:59.159 seeing their friends like trying to get out and then 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:02.159 see them just get sucked back into the ship in 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:06.920 the water. And that was it. So the sew wall 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:11.800 within just a couple hours chuck. It went from completely 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:17.240 above water to totally sunk, totally submerged, and there was 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.719 still three hundred and four people trapped inside when it sank. 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:26.000 Yeah, and that single Coastguard boat, rescue boat that was there, 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:29.320 it sat there and watched the whole thing happen. In fact, 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:33.240 worse than that, those fishermen in the fishing boats that 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:36.120 were there pulling passengers out, the coast Guard ordered them 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:39.280 to retreat and to get out of there. Of those 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:41.080 four hundred and seventy six I think you said three 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:44.639 hundred and four were trapped inside, only three of those 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.680 were crew members, and there were young crew members who 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:49.080 stayed aboard to try and help. 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.560 Yeah, two of them were an engaged couple. 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:57.040 Yeah, all right, we're getting pretty worked up in upset, 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.560 so maybe we should take a break and come back 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:01.560 after this with more on the disaster. 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:28.080 Okay, we'll do that, I think you said earlier, Chuck, 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:31.679 we're back. By the way that the sinking was broadcast 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:34.920 on TV, essentially all of the news just covered it 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:39.240 constantly the entire day and then some and there was 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:41.880 a lot of misinformation that was coming out. You can 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.800 actually hear where it began, Like very early on with 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:49.679 the ship almost fully capsized and mostly sunk, one of 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:54.720 the coastguard guys says, yeah, everybody's safe, they're all they're 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:59.440 all evacuated. So the families who were watching this essentially 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:03.679 had and assurance that their kids were safe, they were alive. 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:08.960 As the ship was sinking, and very quickly it turned 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:10.919 they learned that no, this is not the case. That 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.120 a substantial number two hundred and fifty of them were 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.919 now dead, were now maybe even not dead, but trapped 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:22.960 at the bottom of the Yellow Sea in a boat 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:24.720 and we're going to die. 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:29.360 Yeah, seventy five of the students made it through. So 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.720 the families, you know, almost immediately were like, we need 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.600 to hold someone accountable, We need some answers for what 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:40.560 happened out there, and they never really got answers. So 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:46.800 when that happened. They really went hard into raising good trouble, 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:51.440 becoming activists. Basically, they had candlelight vigils. They drew together 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:55.040 thousands of people at these things. They camped outside of 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.479 the President's residence, which is the Blue House in South Korea. 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.800 A lot of them shade their heads for publicity. They 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.679 went on hunger strikes, they were going to marches and 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.920 speaking at rallies. And because of this and this thing 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:11.679 just seems like it keeps getting worse and worse and 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:15.119 worse it does. South Korea didn't say like, yeah, we 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:17.359 need to really get to the bottom of this. All 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:21.200 these parents are devastated, they lost their children, so let's 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:25.480 get to the bottom of it. Instead, these right wing 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:30.680 websites started putting out and commentators start putting out stories 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:36.359 about kind of what happened in Newtown, Connecticut, like putting 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:39.640 out stories about the families, accusing them of being North 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:44.320 Korean agents trying to get rich off this tragedy. Not 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:47.160 only that the official government started trailing some of them, 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:52.240 started staking out their houses, started tapping phones, trying to 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:56.320 dig up dirt to use against these parents of children 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:58.440 who were killed by neglige Yes. 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:01.080 They went to great length and spent a lot of 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:05.119 money and effort to deflect the focused attention and blame 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:10.399 from itself, the government and parents onto whoever yes on 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:13.600 the parents. It's the most cynical evil thing you could 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:17.080 possibly do as a government in a situation like this 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:23.160 when you're largely to blame. And so the these families 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:28.239 didn't stop as they were vilified. There was like a 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:33.320 huge cleaving between the formerly fully sympathetic and on their 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:36.879 side public and these families because now all of a sudden, 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:38.359 it's like, well, wait a minute, are they trying to 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:41.920 get rich? And the media was fully culpable in this. 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:46.200 They were instrumentalized. I've seen it described by the government 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:49.080 went along fully and so whatever the government wanted them 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:52.080 to say, they would just have some prosecutors, have some 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:55.399