The search for answers to the Sewol tragedy took years - a quest that is only just beginning for those families who have lost loved ones in Itaewon. But a 2019 investigative report from The New York Times showed that cheating and corruption continued to endanger travelers. The government of South Korea pledged to take on a national culture that often puts profit over people, and it tightened laws on inspections and dealing with emergencies on the seas. Experts said it would have most likely made it to the island if it weren’t for the weight. On its final voyage, it was carrying twice the legal limit of cargo, having dumped most of the ballast water that would have helped stabilize it. The owner of the Sewol had added extra berths, making the ferry top-heavy.
It later emerged that the disaster had been born of greed and negligence. At least three parents who had lost children in the sinking later died by suicide. Eight years later - pressured by time and daily life - much of the country has moved on, while Ansan still reels from grief. While South Koreans rallied around the victims’ families in the aftermath, united in their outrage, the tragedy later divided the country, with critics vilifying the families’ quest for accountability and proper compensation as an antigovernment campaign. More than 300 people died that day - including 250 students.
Nytimes today nov. 1 windows#
Passengers trapped inside banged on the windows and the ship slowly descended beneath the waves. There were 476 people on board - including 325 sophomores from Danwon High School in Ansan, a city just south of Seoul.Īs the ferry keeled over, its crew kept urging the passengers through the intercom to wait in their cabins. The Sewol ferry was heading toward Jeju Island on April 16, 2014, for a four-day field trip when it made a sharp turn while fighting a strong current and lost its balance. Traffic jams and clusters of pedestrians restricted the movements of emergency vehicles both coming and going from the site of the deaths.
Questions immediately surfaced about crowd management and planning at the long-publicized event. Now, it is one of the most popular neighborhoods in Seoul, known for its nightlife, young patrons, foreign tourists and stylish restaurants. Itaewon developed as a district of bars, nightclubs and shops catering to American soldiers based nearby in the decades after the Korean War. Of the dead, at least 101 were transferred to nearby hospitals, while 45 were taken to a multipurpose gymnasium, said Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul’s Yongsan fire department. Photographs showed citizens, police officers and emergency medical workers performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on people sprawled on the pavement. An emotional bystander at the scene who witnessed the event said he saw bodies, limp, on the street. The trouble began at a narrow alleyway, right outside exit 2 of the Itaewon subway station, near a row of bars that included, among others, Oasis Bar & Cafe, Gathering and Ravo.
on Sunday because “identifying the victims is our top priority.” He added: “Our forensic teams are focused on identifying victims and collecting evidence from the site.” Kim Geun-jin, a division commander for the Seoul police, said that little could be reported about the cause of the incident as of 4 a.m.
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