Passengers from the Queen Jenuvia II are brought to the Mokpo Coast Guard pier early Thursday after the ferry ran aground near Jokdo, south of Jangsan Island in Sinan County, late Wednesday. - Yonhap/The Korea Herald
SEOUL: South Korean maritime police arrested the first mate and an Indonesian helmsman of the Queen Jenuvia II after the 26,500-tonne passenger ferry ran aground on an uninhabited islet near Jangsan Island, authorities said on Thursday (Nov 20).
The Mokpo Coast Guard said the first mate was detained on suspicion of causing injury by gross negligence after investigators found he had been searching for news on his mobile phone at the time of the crash late Wednesday.
Despite having to navigate a narrow channel that required manual steering, he left the vessel on autopilot, causing it to miss a scheduled course change and drift nearly three kilometres off the Jeju–Mokpo route before striking the islet of Jokdo.
The ferry was travelling at 22 knots, or about 40.7 kph, without the mandatory speed reduction for the channel and failed to communicate with the Mokpo entry control station before the grounding, the Coast Guard said. The Indonesian helmsman was also arrested on the same charge.
The Queen Jenuvia II, carrying 246 passengers and 21 crew members, departed Jeju at 4:45pm and was en route to Mokpo when roughly half its hull became lodged on the rocks.
No fatalities were reported, but the incident has renewed scrutiny of safety protocols on South Korea’s coastal passenger routes.
An official said the investigation is widening to assess whether navigation procedures were properly followed and to identify any broader failures within the ferry operator. - The Korea Herald/ANN
