noble1111 comments

Facts:

The Ferry was built in Japan. The Ferry was re-outfitted to carry more than 100 additional passengers than what it was built for. An Amateur was at the helm and had never traveled these waters before. The crash and subsequent sinking occurred in waters known for violent water and whirlpools. The Korean coast guard refused everyone's help initially. Not just Japan. They indicated to the world they had everything under control The Korean coast guard realized they did not have the training for such a difficult rescue mission only after 2 days of ineffective efforts and allowed the U.S. to participate. They were on site and standing by while waiting for this approval. Japan wanted to do the same, but was refused to even show up. Not by the the coast guard, but by its government leaders.

The water temperature of 10 C to 15.5 C would restrict survival to between 1 - 6 hours. So the initial response was extremely inadequate in providing a successful rescue of anyone trapped longer unless they could get out of the water and whether they had air or not.

It is a moot point to discuss why Japan was restricted access to provide support and why the U.S. was called in so late. After three days this was well beyond a rescue mission and had sadly turned into a salvage mission. What confuses me the most with this rescue is that I have witnessed numerous accounts of oil tankers in the same predicament. These far more massive ships are taking on water and sinking and the first priority is to secure the ship from sinking so as to give more time to remove the cargo. Many techniques are used, like implementing steel cables and ropes under the ship which are attached to massive balloons to keep the ship afloat, or using cranes in place of the balloons, or even using massive fishing nets wrapped around the ship and held by numerous fishing trawlers. It seemed ridiculous to me to be sending in untrained divers into a still moving, sinking vessel to rescue someone.

I guess oil is more important than human life and getting re-elected is more desirable than sucking up your pride. I know that I would not be able to look into the crying eyes of a loved one who was trapped on that ship and realizing that I did not try every possible intelligent rescue that existed. A horrible, unnecessary, tragedy....