A fishing trawler has capsized in the sea off the coast of South Korea in stormy weather today with four dead and six missing while survivors clung to a life raft
Terrifying images show fishermen fighting for their life in a stormy sea after their trawler capsized – leaving four dead and six people still missing.
The boat with 14 crew went down off the southern coast of South Korea on Sunday morning sparking a major emergency operation. South Korea’s Coast Guard said that the trawler capsized suddenly and it appears as though it didn’t have time to issue a distress signal.
The 139-tonne boat was reported missing at 1.41am local time around 17 kilometres east of the island of Habaek, which is about 316 kilometres south of Seoul. It is believed that the trawler began tilting heavily to its left before completely capsizing into the sea during bad weather. There were eight South Koreans, three Vietnamese and three Indonesians onboard.
Following reports of the boat disappearing, Coast Guard vessels rushed to the scene and images show an orange life raft in the water being buffeted with waves while people on board desperately hung on.
The Coast Guard along with the help of other fishing boats found eight crew members but four South Koreans including the 66-year-old captain have tragically died. Five of those found were onboard the life raft while three others were helped from the sea.
In a briefing afterwards the Coast Guard said: “Excluding three people inside the ship, all 11 other crew members jumped into the sea.”
An investigation is now underway as officials said it was not normal for a boat weighing more than 100 tonnes to capsize in the waves of around 2.5 metres high at the time. The fishing trawler was with three other vessels which departed from Gamcheon port in Busan on Saturday to catch fish in waters near the southwestern island of Heuksan.
The fact that there was no distress signal has left officials believing it got unexpectedly into trouble and did not have time to react. A total of 24 patrol ships, four Navy vessels, 13 aircraft and other civilian and agency ships were deployed to try to find the missing crew members, reported the Yonhap news agency.
During search efforts this morning, a Coast Guard high-speed boat also capsized due to high waves but all six on board were rescued by another boat.