RSOE EDIS - Situation Update No. 8 : South Korea - Explosion

RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service Budapest, Hungary RSOE EDIS ALERTMAIL

Situation Update No. 8 Posted:2010-03-26, 15:32:57 [UTC] Ref.no.: EX-20100326-25463-KOR Situation Update No. 8 On 2010-03-29 at 03:21:58 [UTC] Event: Explosion Location: South Korea West Sea Baengnyeong Island area Number of Missing: 46 person(s) Number of Evacuated: 58 person(s) Situation: The search continues for missing sailors aboard 1,200-ton South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan carrying 104 crew that went down in an explosion in waters 1.8 km southwest of Baeknyeong Island in the West Sea on Friday night. The ship sank to the bottom of the sea around 1 a.m. the following day, three hours and 30 minutes after the explosion. Fifty-eight crewmembers were rescued right after the accident, but what became of the remaining 46 was still unknown as of Sunday. On Sunday, the Navy mobilized more troops and equipment to search for the missing crew and the sunken ship but operations were hampered. The Navy sent 74 members of the Ship Salvage Unit to the scene of the accident Sunday morning plus the 3,000-ton rescue ship Gwangyang and two 730-ton minesweepers in the afternoon, but to no avail. "Underwater visibility is near zero because currents are far swifter there than expected and the seabed is nearly a mudflat," a Navy officer said. "It's all the more difficult because rescuers are working with a very limited timeframe." Military authorities are focusing efforts on searching for the stern of the ship which was broken in two in the explosion, in the belief that most of the missing crew huddle together in the stern. "We believe that the ship's stern, which weighs more than the other part, lies on the seabed in the vicinity of the point of accident. But we've yet failed to locate its exact point," an officer said. The bow was swept off four miles (7.2 km) to the southeast of the scene of the accident. Three Navy patrol boats salvaged about 40 articles from the sunken ship, such as life jackets, safety helmets, and bulletproof vests. Family members of the missing crew were aboard a ship provided by the Navy watching the operations. Please DO NOT reply to this message: replies may be treated as errors and result in your subscription being deleted. If you have trouble or other queries, send email to havaria@rsoe.hu RSOE EDIS is operated by the National Association of Radio-Distress Signalling and Infocommunications (RSOE), Budapest, Hungary. Because of the complexity of this system and its dependence on other systems, we cannot be responsible for delays or failures in forwarding or transmission. You're receiving this AlertMail because you subscribed for the service. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. Contact: havaria@rsoe.hu