The trawler had 14 people aboard when it went down before dawn on Sunday, 9 February, in the waters east of Habaek island, near Yeosu on South Korea’s southern coast. By the time Yonhap filed its latest update, four crew were dead and five were unaccounted for.
The Coast Guard first heard the vessel was missing at 1:41 a.m. It later found the 139-ton ship on the seabed, about 80 meters down. One of the missing crew was inside it.
Eight crewmen were pulled out alive at first, five from a life raft and the others drifting in freezing water. Four of them, the 66-year-old captain among them, were later pronounced dead. Eight South Koreans, three Vietnamese and three Indonesians had been on board. Two Vietnamese and two Indonesian crew survived. The Indonesians were taken to the Coast Guard’s Yeosu office for questioning, and the Vietnamese were treated at a nearby hospital for hypothermia.
An unexplained sinking
Rescued Vietnamese crew told the Coast Guard the boat tilted heavily to its left side before it capsized. “Excluding three people inside the ship, all 11 other crew members jumped into the sea,” the Coast Guard said at a briefing.
Investigators are puzzled. The weather was poor, but waves were 2.5 meters, and the Coast Guard considers it unusual for a vessel of more than 100 tons to roll over in that. The trawler also sent no distress signal, though four other fishing boats were working nearby, so officials suspect it sank without warning.
It had left Gamcheon port in Busan on Saturday to fish near Heuksan island in South Jeolla Province.
Twenty-four patrol ships, four Navy vessels and 13 aircraft joined the search, along with other civilian and agency ships. Rough water caught the searchers too. A Coast Guard high-speed boat capsized in high waves that morning, and all six aboard were rescued by another Coast Guard vessel.
