Award-Winning Animation: Two Contrasting Views of the South Korea Ferry Accident 

I just cannot wrap my head around this: "The captain and crew abandoned the ferry after telling passengers to remain in their cabins."

The captain allowed his ship to be overloaded, ordered the ballast be pumped out and put an inexperienced person behind the wheel. However, had the captain refused to overload the ship he would have been fired and replaced with someone else who was willing to break the rules. I find all those who overloaded the ship responsible and guilty of murder.

Even if it was an accident, there’s no excuse for the captain not warning the passengers to escape. I will continue to blame everyone who did not do the right thing.

One word "corruption". The company got away with breaking many regulations and this is the result.

i heard SK government denied help of an American and Japanese navy ship

Ive watched so many videos and documentaries about this tragedy (including Diving Bell: the truth shall not sink with the Sewol video) and in my opinion the cruise's company, the captain and the SK government should be blamed.

Every link in the chain has corroded. -The captain's incompetence (lack of leadership and abandoning ship) -the crews lack of training (no idea how to handle the situation, delays on notifying authorities) -company's greed for money (2x the ship's carrying capacity and adding extra cabin rooms on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors) -government's corruption (letting companies get away with stuff) -president park's lack of actually being president (plastic surgery for 7 hours) Everything that could go wrong, will go wrong (Murphy's law)

Best explanation ever with such amazing animation

One important fact lead to this accident: far eastern mentallity. As a minor you do not speak up and you do not criticise superiors. This has already lead to some accidents in the far east. For example, the co-pilot knew that a particular runway at Taipeh airport was closed due to maintanance. But the captain accidentally decided to take-off from this runway and the co-pilot did not say a word, even though he knew that the captain was wrong. That is why some asian airlines send their chief-pilots for crew resource management training to western airlines.

it's weird to make up two viewpoints when it's all a facter. It's important to discuss ways to prevent the same mistakes, but also to punish all negative contributers to the problem.

I cried because of this incident. Until now, it must have been an angel. Good angel If it didn't happen like this, the siblings would have graduated for a long time.

The captain had a choice save them or just leave them & he did just that? This is heart breaking 😢

My father is investigating Se-Wol-Ho. He told me that the students' dead bodies are missing their fingernails. They realize in the boat where the students were, was full of scratch marks. You can probably tell that they wanted to escape and live so bad. The other students who survived were at the very top floor of the boat and could see what was happening so they went out. The others who couldn't see the situation drowned. They believed that the crew would save them but they didn't. We can't blame it all on the captain and the others who never had a situation like this. I wish this kind of accident never happens again. 잊지않을게 🎗

Seven years later this tragedy still feels like a nightmare to this day. My heart is with the parents faculty the survivors and the community affected by this unfathomable and unwarranted tragedy caused by human error and arrogance. Those involved who failed these kids and the parents along with their school will have a karmic debt to pay to god himself. The blood of those victims are on the hands of those involved. To watch in horror everything that took place shouldn’t have happened. Those precious children shouldn’t have experienced this kind of horror. We will never forget them and we will never forget the negligence that shouldn’t have happened at all. R.I.P. to the sewol ferry ⛴ victims 🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺💐💐💐💐💐🌷🌷🌷🌷⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ xs 304

Two words.......Diving Bell

Now I completely understand why my father never let me go in ANY trips without him or mom

This case will always have a place in my heart . There’s so many tragedies out there in the world but even in 2022 I think about these student’s. Oh how scary it must’ve been for them .

Well no one gonna talk about the animation itself? I mean the topic is so interesting and rip for those who died, but the animation in this case deserves some praises

WOW! this was so much more than I expected. I thought it was just 2 opposing accounts of the incident, but the idea of it being caused by complex factors is kind of reassuring.

I think you have a good point with number 2, but I also think people who don't value safety and truth, or people's lives, should not be in ANY kind of position of power. Should not be in ANY kind of position to call the shots in a rescue mission. Until they can replace all incompetent and corrupt people, of course those pressures will still be there. A society that fuels immorality is what that is. Do you think maybe if they could look ahead, they'd realize any fuck ups that they cause, directly or indirectly, would result in mobs of angry people calling for their resignation or even their demise? (AKA more pressure. Probably worse than work pressure. Because it involves being responsible for a terrible accident.) Do you think they'd realize that covering it up actually makes it worse? It makes me angry. It happened 5 years ago and I am outraged. Think of this on a smaller scale. A drunk driver crashes into a family. One member survives. It was an accident. Should they not press charges? There are thousands of drunk drivers. This could have been anyone. Irresponsible people should be held accountable. They should learn from their mistakes. You kill someone, you go to jail. The drunk driver hopefully learns that driving drunk is dangerous. It doesn't matter how many times they've made it home safe.

It doesn't matter how you slice it people screwed up. It is not important about what drove them. The bottom line is greed and incompetence cost hundreds of lives. Everyone involved of the company and crew are guilty so there is no point trying to excuse their behavior. Only a change in the societal and business pressures will prevent things like this happening.

This must be shared with all in hierarchy of administration, businesses and management of all developing countries. The video talks about collective fault with system and should be taken as such.

This does not explain the incomprehensible actions (or lack of) from the s.k. government post-accident. It is truly horrifying and saddening that so many young lives were lost, likely and simply to protect some chaebol.

This is a really unique analysis of the catastrophe and is probably relevant to accidents everywhere, thanks for this

Just Watch Diving Bell; Truth Sall Not Sink with Sewol ( Diretors cut/ free release)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please just watch this documentary, Only one reporter did this video

Honestly even if consider the complicated factors that led to the accident the element that is entirely inexcusable is the captain being one of the first off the ship without letting any of the passengers know what's going on. He placed his personal safety above the lives of the passengers he was responsible for and didn't even give them enough info for them to try to save themselves. That makes him guilty of murder from my perspective.

I saw the Korean documentary video there was underwater collision reported by the eyewitness accounts hearing loud banging and also the ship was sailing in heavy fog

The biggest criminals here are first and foremost the damn captain, then sewol managements that allowed the ship to operates 3 times over its legal capacity and any politicians or media trying to make use of this tragedy for their own purposes. I think it’s very unfair to put all the angers to the Korean Coast Guard and to shut down this entire institution is making another horrific disaster.

I can see the point this video seeks to make. Multiple, sometimes random factors coming together to make a perfect storm etc. but, specifically, I believe the largest failing came down to the captain who had it within his power to save life and didn't. By what is inferred in the video, this captain was used to sailing with overloaded vessels, critically so, in this instance. It figures that if there was a shift in the cargo brought about a change of course from 135 degrees to 140 degrees (source, Wiki page) - hardly radical - then the vessel was hopelessly top heavy. Now, on reaching the bridge, where unsuccessful efforts were already being made to reverse the list, how could he not have considered a worst case scenario of capsize, and how he could not issue a general alert to have passengers head to the ship's muster points. RU-vid is full of videos of passengers on cruise ships being readied for a POSSIBLE evacuation. I suspect he was overwhelmed with guilt about being in charge of a man made catastrophe and lapsing into complete denial. It is a reality that as a ship's list increases it becomes harder and harder for people to move up the decks from the lower cabin areas. Imagine, for example, a staircase 40 degrees off the the vertical. It's not a staircase any more and ascent becomes difficult to almost impossible. All the more so with large multiples of passengers in a state of panic and distress; and yet, at 30 degrees engine room crew at the bottom of the vessel made it off the ship without issue. I should say, I spent eighteen months working at sea as a Entertainments Officer with special emergency duties, either as OiC (officer in charge)or 2nd Oic of one of the ship's muster stations at which some 500 passengers and over two hundred members of the ship's crew would assemble. I can hardly explain the amount of training, seminars and drills we would conduct in pursuit of implementing a safety regime that was rigidly scrutinised by the International Maritime Organisation. Wherever we went in the world whether it was New York, Piraeus or Sydney, the respective coast guards had full autonomy to come on board and inspect our procedures. The certificates they would issue, assuming we had passed their inspection, were of limited duration and so our ship would have to re-qualify time and again. Unfortunately, it seems like the Sewol was only plying domestic waters and not subject to an inspection process of any rigour. A final thought, those children and their teachers were blameless. They were following instructions and cannot have appreciated the very grave danger they were in. Ps. I will edit this submission in time. At the moment I am following several videos and there is quite a lot of conflict between them. One shows very detailed analysis to suggest there was no overloading. Elsewhere it remains suggested as a factor.

Will not be happy for winning Award of this animation for this accident.

Where were the lifeboats located

I think the rescue was I disaster, when the ferry was almost totally upisde down, there was still people alive inside it, they could brreak the windows and rescue them, or maybe get some divers to try to rescue them.

i agree that this was a complex situation and we should never look at things simply; but i feel by calling such a tragedy an accident or something to learn from completely disregards the people who were affected by the situation. i don't like the idea of basing the sewol disaster as a industrial/decision-making lesson. i feel there were some things that happened that shouldn't of happened that every person pursuing anything to do with organizing a ferry would know and not follow. even if the disaster wasn't avoidable, the communication was horrible. this was, to me, the main issue of the tragedy. r.i.p. to those who passed🎗️

Lol the only view there is and should be acknowledged is the fact that they could have saved every single passenger on that ferry but didn't, to save their ass from the backlash after the truth will be revealed. 'Cause who cares about 200+ people when my money and reputation is in jeopardy right?

Good analysis. If we don't reflect on the system itself, the same system will push more new hires to the same position and when the balance is broken, new disasters will happen.

The captain did not act as a captain or an honourable hero who could save lives. It's such a shame for the captain to board a lifeboat minutes later, leaving almost half of the highschoolers in the ferry instead of continuing to guide them to save their lives on the speaker. The captain seem to be very inexperienced of what I've noticed to some videos of telling the student just to stay inside their cabins, which is really dumb for their situation, and then left the speaker, leaving the students trapped in their cabins.. They should've told them to go to any exit routes such as big port holes or windows they can break, or a near exit.

Lesson i have taken from this disaster is to abandon the sinking ship asap. Reach on a higher ground.. where you can be rescued easily.

I feel like Spring Day MV is abt all of the 5 major accidents tht are mention in this video .

"Desire for minimum workload": goal achieved.

What a great point, there are so many individuals in this and just one of them could’ve changed this disaster

This conclusion by deduction is simple and genius. Must use it in my presentations. Thank you!

Agree. The thing is, I find it odd that people seek truth when the truth is bared in front of everyone, and that is failure. Failure of the Captain and it's crew and it's company to secure safety, the government's failure to respond appropriately and responsibly and the passenger's failures by trusting the command/instruction . But please, don't hate me for saying the latter. I sympathize to those victims. I just want to emphasize that it's our behavior and our ability to react that should kick in whenever we're face with any kind of situation. Follow our instinct and do what we think is best w/o causing more trouble or panic. I am in no way have any rights to say a thing as I was not in the actual event however I wish that this kind of incident will never happen again. Don't take it as if I was blaming the victims. No. Never. I just want to point out that we can only trust ourselves when face with danger. We can't expect other people to their job. They should but when push comes to shove, your on your own. Let's just educate ourselves. Learn from this. And remember to always, always trust our instinct but never panic.... I can't believe I only know this just today! I just happened to saw a post when I was scrolling fb. It is saddening. I cried watching some documentaries 😥

This video does not really explore "all" solutions. Why should people either be blamed or learn from this tragedy ? Why can't it be both ? In a society that corrupt, not blaming people would send very wrong messages. Especially if it is very obvious that someone knowingly made wrong choices. Also science is very biased, as is the government and their investigations. So how could they learn from it ? The only solution is to get rid of those who are the "spiders" in the huge nets of corruption and tackle the hierarchy system.

Eu fiquei chocada ao saber desse fato que até então eu não conhecia. Sou mãe de um garoto de 17 anos e me coloquei no lugar de cada pai e mãe que perderam seus filhos de uma forma tão cruel e irresponsável. Chorei muito. Pois até então eu não sabia desse caso. Meus pêsames a todas as famílias que perderam seus filhos.😖

Blames happen when disaster strike , its the master full responsibity to bring ships and passenger to next port . overload on passenger are responsible by maritime authority and coast guard . They issue clearance to sail under capacity limits . Captain and deck officer are aware about ships stability booklet provided by a naval architect . Ballast management if need can be execute by chief officer onboard to keep GM in positive posistion

this is why it’s important to keep things balanced. never lose sight of where you come from and possible consequences. it’s never a good thing to be too greedy.

Good post, Good points. Doesn't change the *FACT* that the captain and crew were grossly, murderously, criminally negligent in their response to the disaster when the ship started to capsize. Although it is true we need to look beyond blame and look at all factors leading to this disaster, and it is true that humans, properly trained and properly responding, can be the heroes who stop or minimize damage from many disasters, there are still some people involved in this accident (particularly captain and crew) who do need to be charged, tried, convicted, sentenced and punished for their overt, grossly negligent and incompetent performance in the disaster. There is no fixing this one if you don't make it excruciatingly clear that people are going to be accountable if they f*** up that badly. Even with everything else leading to this accident - the captain and crew abandoning ship and leaving the passengers to die - especially telling them over the loudspeakers to stay in their cabins and await instructions, and the crew abandoning ship without giving any such instructions - is absolutely inexcusable.

This is a good video that points out that safety rules are written in blood. Almost every commercial vessel, plane, vehicle, and building collapse disaster has its root cause in the "money first" mindset. This "money first" mindset has been going on for eons and it'll keep on going on. Blood is cheap and people easily forget when big profits can be made by neglecting safety.

This video reminds me of a corporate video you were forced to watch and then sign off on for safety training.

You can run a business using a NOT FOR PROFIT model. It just means private capital shareholders do not get to skim off profits from the revenue steam. Market forces can still keep prices low through competition. But the not for profit business has less internal pressure on its resources and is more capable of maintaining and improving safety protocols.

Error, the ballast should have filled with seawater to the max because it was top loaded and unstable. The captain wanted to sail faster so omitted this mandatory ballast increase.

That system has a name and it is called capitalism. In South Korea regulations are often ignored, because capitalists favor money above safety. Since the conservative government is fully supportive of big business, it is no surprise that a few large capitalist families control the South Korean economy!

Gyuchan, your analysis is spectacularly precise. Whenever I wish to shine a light on seafaring as a brotherhood of victims I mention your work and your name with enormous gratitude. God bless you !.

This disaster can be looked at as 2 separate events that lead to the "accident" .The first involving corrupt officials within government and company employees of witch the captain and crew were part of. The second actions taken by the captain and crew once this disaster started was to play the most pivotal part in this horrific story. The absolute cowardice and puzzling actions of the crew led to the loss of all who died. One thing this doc did not mention is that the captain and some of his crew removed their uniforms when being rescued so not to be identified by coast guard sailors. They did not inform anyone as to the safety of the passengers or what actions should follow they just boarded the small rescue boat climbed on and nothing. This is criminal. The most disturbing part of this story is the footage shot on cell phones by the students them selves , you can hear them joking about being rescued but also the tension in their voices. I can't imagine the terror in their voices as the water poured into their cabins and realizing their fate is doomed and they aren't being rescued and this is the end , its heart breaking. Just hope the next time you are travelling that the company you are using has hired the right individuals to get you home safely. Peace

If only the captain told the students to get out instead of staying put .. it's heart wrenching to even think about suffocating under water unable to get to the doors , seeing people outside while you are desperately trying to escape, drowning , nobody helping you ..

The captain and crew should've at least told everyone to get to the ferry's deck... the students got trapped inside the ferry because they were told to stay still...

So Basically the Driver of the Ship was a Rookie and Killed many kids with his Horrific Decision of Sharp Turning a over loaded Vessel .Wow.. Fire the one who hired him and fire him to.

the plain simple truth is that all situations cant be prepared for. the best we can do is try to train people with skills that will allow survival in multiple situations. tragedies will continue to happen throughout human existence. the best we can do is learn from them.

very interesting. But in the end- the issue is not the accident or that the ship sank, but how it was handled and how people was mislead to stay whilst the crew left. nothing can defend that, no other human shall tell them to stay regardless of position. what a tragedy.

Video is interesting, but is more about the concept of outside pressures on indiduals contribute to human error. The accident itself is given only a cursory examination, and only acts as a setting for this discussion

The fact they were thinking about how it will be seen on the media /television then while they are supposed saving people is just ridiculous

unfairly blame them ? They were totally responsible .

Very true, we " humans'' are our worst nightmares.

This is superb! Those Precious kids❤️💔❤️❤️🙏God Bless them & their families. I’m a seasoned professional journalist & this is the most heartbreaking tragedy done 9/11 imo God give strength & comfort to all affected❤️🙏🕊

Which view is real?

Oh thank God an english narration. I am trying to research this incident for a class. And it is so hard to keep good notes reading subtitles. Bless you. And Rest in peace to all those lost..

I am sure the US/Japanese coast guard or the fisherman who helps can easily find a tool to break those windows only if they let them help freely and just let all the passengers float outside the ship while wearing a life vest, they can all safely float outside the ship while waiting for the boat to rescue them. I wonder what gives the Korean rescue team the idea to make them stay inside the ship while half of the ship is already underwater? like wtf? where is commonsense?.

Every American flagged passenger carrying vessel has a Stability Letter posted under glass in the wheelhouse required by the Coast Guard and checked by them during every annual inspection. I'm curious if S. Korea has something similar. That letter states in no uncertain terms the legal tonnage that can be loaded on a vessel and also states the ballast tanks and fuel tanks must be completely full before loading. The relief captain was responsible for that aspect and placing a unqualified 3rd mate at the helm and going to bed is criminally irresponsible. That's the exact same error Hazelwood made on an oil tanker outbound from an Alaskan port. You know what happened there the only difference is one turned to hard and the other failed to turn at all. The ages old story of profit superseding safety goes on and on because the owners only suffer a momentary monetary loss.

7:30 now in 2022 ,the Itaewon crowd crush incident took place

No matter what other side or background factors where involved here the captain is 100% to blame. He is as his title suggests the captain and master of his vessel, he has the final authority and responsibility to safely guide his vessel. He made unacceptable decisions, risked safety for profit, and is an absolute disgrace to the job.

This animation is very well made!

Very well done video. After watching many shipwrecks videos, they all almost have the same things in common. Negligence, corrupt people/company, greed, selfishness and overall people who are not doing things in a way that is best for the safety of the people on board or the ship itself. I've seen stuff like this personally in other ways, people will cut corners and do things that could cause serious harm to people until they get caught or something happens, so its a matter of time until something bad occurs. It is very scary and happens way too much. In general, horrible things occur way too much, humans seem to not learn from the past so it keeps repeating. The South Korea ferry accident is such a terrible tragedy, those kids trusted those in charge and thought they would be okay, they should all be alive. I hope they are in a better place.

The moral of the story: It's not safe when everyone is bald.

This is like when right brain mean left brain to turn on a light bulb. I love this. We need more.

WHICH MEAN STOP SHORTCUTTING AND MAKING PROFITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!FOLLOW THE RIGHT ROUTE AND COMMUNICATION AND MAKING SURE WE FOLLOW ALL STRICT RULES AND REGULATION!!

Excellent, succinct video you've made here. Worthy of praise. Ignore the ignorant reactionaries below.

i just cannot grasp how in such a complex system that is supposed to help maintain safety for passengers failed on every single possible sector. if just one had done their job responsibly then this could have been avoided. You just need to rely on at least some people doing the job right. The fact that there were so many opportunities to still come back from this disaster and all of them were missed means that the whole system had 0 reliability which is absolutely insane.

Answer: They've been sacrificed.

There are no 2 points of view for what the captain did. He fled, choosing to save himself, when helping others was his job and people listened to him. He did not cause the catastrophy, but he did cause many deaths by choosing cowardess.

This is ground breaking video I've ever seen about sewol ferry disaster. Maybe so far I had a first view only on this accident as most people do. We need to build up accident prevention measures to prevent next distaster.

in Russia this behavior called тяп ляп meaning "quickly and doesn't matter how",

Accident? No, they're murdered them, it's not an accident

I hope they will learn from this disaster...

A group of innocent children who were not involved in anything,paid with their lives ..💔

I knew this video was garbage when they referred to "hindsight bias." Pretty soon there will be a "truth bias," where someone is so concerned with truth and accuracy that they ignore false but potentially useful explanations.

470 people and they couldn’t even save half of them what a shame shows how slow and unprofessional they were !!! 💔

look, this is true and all but the captain left those students and schoolchildren behind while he safely evacuated and the coast guard made very few attempts to save those kids. this looks like your trying to shift the blame to "accidents happen lol." while this WAS an accident, it lead to the deaths of 300 people, mostly students going on their senior year trip in their last year of high school. this video insults their deaths.

I've heard of Captains like this before and that part doesn't surprise me, the part that does surprise me is the awful plan and handling of the children in the cabins that's what I thought was so cruel, it was like saying to them we need them to just stay out of our way in case we need a quick way to get out ourselves!!! That's what I'm thinking!!! I'm glad that the captain got a hell of a lot of time. And I wish alot of the people who handled the kids got just as much as the captain got that's pretty much murder, the way those people dealt with those poor children. Why didn't they get jail time??? Those poor people who are the parents of the children don't ever get to see there kids again, they deserve to have justice of some sort. And be as far as I'm concerned they better make it worthwhile for the parents at least. But everyone that was involved in the whole affair with the whole ship all the he way up to the coastguard should have been charged for incompetentcy, they especially knew what there jobs were and it was to save lives, did they? Doesn't look like it to me!!! And probably a whole lot of people as well!?? That whole senario was so sad and needless especially with the lives lost!!! God will be with your children spirit's and watching over your parents, blessed to the lord and his followers of angels!!! Amen!!!✝️🛐♾️❤️🇨🇦🎀🎄🎀🌈⭐☯️🛐✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️

Totally agree after the accident its essential to take into consideration all the factors the pressure for profit, siphoning off money, possible corruption, work pressure on captain/crew, training & safety protocol, etc, however, at the actual time of the event the majority of those are irrelevant & about the only relevant issue at that juncture are the actions of the captain & crew, and tragically in this particular accident it would appear that it was more a case of inaction than action.

Any country who allows this kind of tragedy to happen should immediately be eliminated from any government assistance.

I think this is somewhat simplistic. You're not wrong that the issues are more complex than "blame the following parties and punish them". However, there should be some influence from professionalism; the rescue services in particular have much to answer for (you don't address their reasons for failing to even start some sort of rescue operation. Root cause analysis here says that the captain did a terrific job meeting the mandates of his company, but let's go to the map and recognize that the company's need for ever higher profits were of their own making, and would draw the ire of almost any reasonable population, and were the reason the captain felt the need to make ever more bricks with ever less straw. That is the kind of thing I, personally, cannot forgive. If my child had been on this ferry and died, I would have been baying for the head, not of the captain, but of the company president and board.

Had the captain raised the alarm while telling the kids to come to the upper deck then I could see this as an attempt, But as the footage shows the captain was the first to jump ship with no back up plan, if that is not murder then I don't know what is?

6:51 this was the most chilling part of the video

I heard the coast guard were not trying to save the children.. But now I think of it.. What more could the coast guard have done? If only they could be raised the ship while the students were still alive.. The sewo l itself was listing on the side where doors into the sewo l were so it would be been hard to save them from the side which was still visible right? Since there might be not been any doors? I don't know for sure.But I had heard that and thought it might be true..

True, but how could you explain the fact that only 2/46 rescue vessels were at the accident sight? If the government, as the last line of defence also tries to fiddle with the safety boundary, do you think why we have to pay tax? For example, the with the current pandemic, if the government said: nevermind, it's too costly and let us run loose, with no restriction whatsoever, then what would happen?

The coastguard couldn’t do anything they wasn’t trained for this scenario.

Very well made video! Kudos to the creators.

Why the music?

my take is both of the option go together.

Mind-blowing explainTion