Vice-principal of South Korea school in ferry disaster commits suicide

[MarcATL]

Sad...very sad.

Vice-principal of South Korea school in ferry disaster commits suicide | Reuters

 

[R.D.]

May he rest in peace. So sad, I can't even imagine the pain.

 

[norwegen]

I heard about this, and wondered why he would have done that. The link said he was rescued, so I'm still wondering.

Seems overly dramatic.

 

[MarcATL]

I heard about this, and wondered why he would have done that. The link said he was rescued, so I'm still wondering.

Seems overly dramatic.

HE probably felt overwhelmed w/guilt.

Not saying he was responsible, just saying that's how he felt.

Survivor's guilt included.

Practically all the victims are children.

This is just a bad story.

 

[norwegen]

I heard about this, and wondered why he would have done that. The link said he was rescued, so I'm still wondering.

Seems overly dramatic.

HE probably felt overwhelmed w/guilt.

Not saying he was responsible, just saying that's how he felt.

Survivor's guilt included.

Practically all the victims are children.

This is just a bad story.

I'm still having trouble sympathizing. Maybe someone can change my mind about that, but it's not like he abandoned his charges.

If he hanged himself out of guilt, he was way too emotional. Maybe he did it out of a feeling of helplessness? Still too dramatic, I think.

 

[JakeStarkey]

I heard about this, and wondered why he would have done that. The link said he was rescued, so I'm still wondering.

Seems overly dramatic.

Simply means you do not understand the communal reciprocity and obligation in South Korean society.

Sad, but I am not surprised.

 

[norwegen]

I heard about this, and wondered why he would have done that. The link said he was rescued, so I'm still wondering.

Seems overly dramatic.

Simply means you do not understand the communal reciprocity and obligation in South Korean society.

Sad, but I am not surprised.

You're right. I was not aware of this aspect of Korean society. Thank you.

 

[R.C. Christian]

Screw him. He should have brought a bigger pair. What a selfish jerk to make it about him. Having something or someone and then the loss is tough but if you can get over it and turn that wasted energy into something useful like anger or hate then that can be fulfilling.

 

[waltky]

Time running out on trapped passengers...

Doomed ferry's sharp turn, slow evacuation probed
18 Apr.`14 — The investigation into South Korea's ferry disaster focused on the sharp turn it took just before it began listing and on the possibility that a quicker evacuation order by the captain could have saved lives, officials said Friday, as rescuers struggled to find some 270 people still missing and feared dead.

Police said a high school vice principal who had been rescued from the ferry was found hanging Friday from a pine tree on Jindo, an island near the sunken ship where survivors have been housed. He was the leader of a group of 325 students traveling on the ship on a school excursion, and said in a suicide note that he felt guilty for being alive while more than 200 of his students were missing. Prosecutors and police also said Friday they have asked a court to issue arrest warrants for the captain and two other crewmembers.

Besides the teacher, at least 28 people are now confirmed dead from the ferry, the Sewol, which sank Wednesday. Officials said there were 174 survivors and about 270 people remain missing, many of them high school students. With the chances of survival becoming slimmer by the hour, it was shaping up to be one of South Korea's worst disasters, made all the more heartbreaking by the likely loss of so many young people, aged 16 or 17.

The ship had left the northwestern port of Incheon on Tuesday on an overnight journey to the holiday island of Jeju in the south with 476 people aboard. It capsized within hours of the crew making a distress call to the shore at 9 a.m. Soon, only its dark blue keel jutted out over the surface. By late Friday, even that had disappeared, and rescuers floated two giant beige buoys to mark the area. Navy divers attached underwater air bags to the 6,852-ton ferry to prevent it from sinking further, the Defense Ministry said.

Coast guard officials said divers began pumping air into the ship in an attempt to sustain any survivors. On Jindo's shore, angry and bewildered relatives watched the rescue attempts. Some held a Buddhist prayer ritual, crying and praying for their relatives' safe return.

MORE

 

[CaféAuLait]

I heard about this, and wondered why he would have done that. The link said he was rescued, so I'm still wondering.

Seems overly dramatic.

I've been to S.Korea and spend a considerable amount of time there, aside from survivors guilt which is probably a fair assumption. The Korean people have an extreme sense of family, honor, and marked solitary- even with neighbors. It is hard to describe unless you get to know them. There is something called "han" it's something like a terrible burden here or deep sorrow. "Han" would play a roll in this tragedy because Koreans would not just blame the captain, but they would believe the entire incident reflects poorly on them and Korea itself.

 

[R.C. Christian]

That is so true ^^ in my limited experience with them.

 

[waltky]

Not holding out much hope of finding additional survivors...

Hope fades as US, S. Korea continue search for ferry disaster survivors
April 18, 2014 ~ 28 confirmed dead, roughly 270 listed as missing

The U.S. military continues to assist South Korea search for survivors of Wednesday’s ferry sinking in the Yellow Sea, even as the prospect of finding anyone still alive seems increasingly unlikely. Two U.S. MH-60 helicopters based on the USS Bonhomme Richard were still conducting search-and-rescue operations in the Yellow Sea near the site where the Sewol sank, U.S. and South Korean officials said Friday. The U.S. Navy is also sending two salvage specialists from Singapore to the area Saturday to provide advice during operations, according to South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense.

Nearly 270 of the ship’s 475 passengers, many of them high school students on a trip to Jeju Island, remained missing as of Friday evening; 28 have been confirmed dead. “Our thoughts and prayers remain with the passengers of the Sewol and their families during this very difficult time,” Commander, Naval Forces Korea, said in a statement released Friday. The command did not respond to questions about whether any additional U.S. military assets would become involved in the search, the current location of the Bonhomme Richard or when it would leave the area. An MND spokesman said that 30 U.S. medical personnel, including five doctors, were on standby on the Bonhomme Richard to care for any passengers who might be pulled from the wreckage.

Seaman Ashlee Stone scans the horizon from the forward lookout of the USS Bonhomme Richard. Sailors and Marines aboard the amphibious assault ship are conducting search and rescue operations as requested by the Republic of Korea navy near the scene of the sunken ferry Sewol in the vicinity of the island of Jindo.

But nearly two days after the accident, it appeared increasingly unlikely that any survivors would be pulled from the chilly waters near Jindo, on the southwestern coast of the peninsula. The MND spokesman said that officials were still considering the operation a search-and-rescue operation rather than recovery mission. The Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship based in Sasebo, Japan, was conducting routine maritime operations in the region when the Sewol issued a distress signal shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday. Two MH-60 helicopters equipped with lifeboats were initially dispatched from the Bonhomme Richard to the disaster site but were recalled on Wednesday. One of the MND officials said Friday that the U.S. helicopters returned to the ship because, with so many South Korea helicopters already on site, the U.S. aircraft were not needed.

On Thursday, two U.S. MH-60 helicopters searched an area about five to 15 nautical miles, or six to 17 miles, from the disaster site at the request of the South Korean commander directing the search, according to CNFK. U.S. President Barack Obama, who will visit South Korea next Friday and Saturday on a trip to Asia, issued a statement Thursday offering condolences to the families of victims of the tragedy. “The bonds of friendship between the American and Korean people are strong and enduring, and our hearts ache to see our Korean friends going through such a terrible loss, especially the loss of so many young students,” the statement said.

Hope fades as US, S. Korea continue search for ferry disaster survivors - News - Stripes

 

[JFK_USA]

Heard that. Tragic.

 

[waltky]

Recovery of bodies begins...

Anger mounts after bodies found trapped inside sunken South Korean ferry
19 Apr.`14 - Angry relatives of more than 200 people, mostly children, missing inside a sunken South Korea ferry demanded authorities act now to raise the vessel and hit out at officials, including the country's president, as hopes of finding survivors faded.

Divers saw three bodies floating through a window of a passenger cabin on Saturday but were unable to retrieve them, the coastguard said. Grieving parents and others gathered in a gymnasium in the port of Jindo, the rescue center for the operation, were shown murky underwater video footage of the hull of the ship on Saturday for the first time.

It was impossible to see any bodies in the footage viewed by relatives and reporters at the site. "Please lift the ship, so we can get the bodies out," a woman who identified herself as the mother of a child called Kang Hyuck said, using a microphone in the gymnasium where hundreds of people have spent day and night since the ferry capsized on Wednesday. "(President) Park Geun-hye should come here again," she said of the South Korean leader who visited the site on Thursday. Of the 273 missing, most are children from a single high school on the outskirts of the South Korean capital of Seoul. Some parents were giving DNA swabs so rescuers can identify the corpses.

Three cranes have been moved to the site of the rescue operation, but have not yet been deployed and divers have not been able to gain entry to the ship due to fast tides and murky water conditions. The weather was deteriorating in the afternoon, meaning the divers may not be able to start the operation on Saturday. Divers tried to break the glass to get at the three bodies they saw on Saturday, but failed to do so, the coastguard said. Coastguard spokesman Kim Jae-in said the cranes would be deployed when the divers said it was safe to do so. "Lifting the ship does not mean they will remove it completely from the sea. They can lift it two to three meters off the seabed," he said.

The cause of the capsize has not yet been identified, but the investigation has centered on what may have been a sudden turn by the Sewol ferry that may have caused its cargo to shift. The capsize occurred in calm weather on a well-traveled 400 km (300 mile) sea route from the mainland port of Incheon to the holiday island of Jeju some 25 km (15 miles) from land. The ship's veteran captain, 69-year old Lee Joon-seok, faces five criminal charges and was arrested on Saturday along with two other crew members, according to coastguard officials. Lee was not at the helm or on the bridge when the ferry capsized, although crew members said he tried to right the ship later. Witnesses say that he and other crew members escaped from the stricken vessel before giving orders for the passengers to escape. The third mate, who had the helm at the time of the capsize, was one of those arrested.

MORE

 

[Godboy]

One of the mothers of the dead children blamed him on national news. She said something like "he was able to save himself, but not our children?". What a bitch. Grieving or not, that was a shitty move and totally unfair. I blame HER for his death. I wonder, will she even feel bad about it, or will she convince herself that there was nothing wrong with what she said?

 

[Unkotare]

She's likely more concerned with grieving for her child right now.

 

[jillian]

I heard about this, and wondered why he would have done that. The link said he was rescued, so I'm still wondering.

Seems overly dramatic.

i don't think the point was "drama". he felt he couldn't live with the guilt of having been saved when all those children died.

i don't think suicide was the answer, but i certainly wouldn't call it "drama". i think that diminishes the circumstances.

 

[Esmeralda]

Sad...very sad.

Vice-principal of South Korea school in ferry disaster commits suicide | Reuters

It's all very, very sad. The loss of all those children, all those people, the suffering of the South Korean people, it's heartbreaking.

 

[whitehall]

I heard about this, and wondered why he would have done that. The link said he was rescued, so I'm still wondering.

Seems overly dramatic.

Simply means you do not understand the communal reciprocity and obligation in South Korean society.

Sad, but I am not surprised.

Wouldn't "communal reciprocity and obligation" dictate that the freaking captain commit suicide?

 

[Esmeralda]

I heard about this, and wondered why he would have done that. The link said he was rescued, so I'm still wondering.

Seems overly dramatic.

HE probably felt overwhelmed w/guilt.

Not saying he was responsible, just saying that's how he felt.

Survivor's guilt included.

Practically all the victims are children.

This is just a bad story.

I'm still having trouble sympathizing. Maybe someone can change my mind about that, but it's not like he abandoned his charges.

If he hanged himself out of guilt, he was way too emotional. Maybe he did it out of a feeling of helplessness? Still too dramatic, I think.

You don't understand Korean culture. Not everyone in the world has the same perspective on reality as we do. That is the first thing everyone needs to understand. Other cultures have different perspectives than we do, and those perspectives are just as valid as ours.