Ferry captain faces criminal charges

The 69-years-old Lee Joon-seok, captain of the South Korean ferry that capsized, is facing criminal investigation as more and more evidence of his lack of professionalism surface.

It now seems that, besides being one of the first people to get off the ferry, he wasn’t even at the helm or on deck when the ship hit trouble. The third officer was at helm.

In addtion, although the captain had been instructed to proceed with the evacuation immediately after the first distress signal, the captain waited for approximately another half hour before actually following through with the order.

Moreover, the rescue operation is considered inadequate as the crew and captain deployed only a few of the ferry’s rescue rafts.

As early evidence point towards human error as the cause of the disaster, an inexperienced officer at helm might be a very serious factor in the accident.

Approximately 270 of the 450 passengers are still missing while the confirmed death toll of 28 is expected to rise as the hours pass by.