We start with the latest updates regarding the Sewol-ho ferry disaster...
The number of confirmed dead has now surpassed the 200-mark... two weeks after the sinking.
And as of this Wednesday morning, more than ninty people remain unaccounted for.
More bodies were retrieved overnight...
despite poor tidal and weather conditions at the accident site.
For more on this and other updates, let's connect with Connie Lee, who is standing by
in the news center.
Connie?
Good morning Mark- the total number of people confirmed dead stands a two-hundred-and-ten
people at this point.
Search officials and divers retrieved a dozen bodies late Tuesday... and early this morning,
five more bodies were recovered.
Officials say most of the victims were found in the lobby... of the FIFTH floor of the
sunken ferry... an area that was not expected to have that many passengers.
What we know... is that most of the retrieved bodies were male students from Danwon High
School- where most of the passengers were from.
As of now... search offficials say they've gone through more than half of the 64 rooms
or compartments... where the missing passengers are believed to be.
There are 92-people still unaccounted for.
Connie, you said most of the passengers were found on the 5th floor...an area where they
didn't expect to find anyone.
Why do you think divers found a lot of bodies there?
As you remember, Mark... the search and recovery process mostly focused on the 4th floor...
because the most of the students from Danwon High School stayed in cabins on that floor.
But officials themselves were surprised to see many bodies on the lobby's 5th floor.
According to the commander of the recovery operation... he thinks the students from the
fourth floor attempted to escape from the rushing waters...by going up to the fifth
floor.
"As the waters started coming in, instinctly... the students probably rushed to the upper
floor..."
Looking at a mock-up blueprint of the ship... the lobby, or where most of the latest bodies
were found... is right by the stairwell.
So it does make sense... that students who were inside their cabins on the 4th floor...
tried to escape the waters rushing in... by making their way up the stairs and onto the
fifth floor.
But unfortunately, they were not able to get out.
Officials say they have now expanded their search area, to look more intently on the
fifth floor.
It's just awful to imagine the terror they must have felt in those moments.
This sort of massive tragedy could've been avoided with an alert or alarm to tell passengers
to escape-- and I hear there has been another miss count regarding the total number of crew
on board?
Well, first of all... latest investigation shows that the number of crew on board...
has been incorrect again.
You know, there has been a lot of change in numbers since day one of this incident.
According to authorities....
33 crew members... were actually on that sunken ferry....
instead of 29, as originally reported.
The additional FOUR crew members were part-time workers on that ferry... and it looks like
they actually had tickets to get onto that ship.
With this latest confusion though..
there's speculation now that there may be even MORE crew members not taken into account.
What's the latest in the investigation into the crew members?
As you know... all 15 surviving crew members responsible for navigating the ferry are in
custody, and are facing charges,,... including negligence and abandoning passengers.
Investigators are now looking into phone logs... of crew on the sinking ferry and the ferry's
employer...
the Chonghaejin Marine Company.
Prosecutors say that multiple crew members on the ferry communicated about SEVEN times
by phone with employer officials...
when the ship was listing.
THe first call was made around 9 A-M... just minutes after the ferry reported its first
distress call to coast guards.
And the last call... by a crew member to its employer...
was made around 9-40 AM.
Investigators are looking into WHY the calls were made... and what the conversations were
about.
Mark?