Scenes of weeping relatives and friends of 300 passengers and crewmen reported missing and feared drowned. These people are on Cheju Island. Sobbing is heard. There is a shot of fishing boats in the port of Sogipo on the south side of Cheju Island. The ferry had left the port for the mainland.




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Background: The owner, captain and radio operator of a South Korean ferryboat that sank Tuesday morning (Dec. 15th) in the Korean Strait with 320 passengers and crewmen aboard have been arrested and charged with negligence and homicide.

The ferryboat was bound for Pusan, the port on the Southeastern side of the Korean peninsula. Investigations have disclosed that the boat was loaded with about 500 tons of cargo, 350 tons more than the legal limit. the cargo, according to reports, had been loaded on only one side of the deck and shifted once the vessel was out to sea. Some fifty miles out from the southern coast of Korea. The ferry tilted to one side. Then it had engine trouble and drifted for twenty minutes before it capsized. Only twelve persons out of the 321 aboard survived.