Deployment of 47 Ships and 5 Aircraft
No Missing Persons Found During Daytime Search
Only 29 Items of 12 Types of Personal Belongings Recovered
Night search operations to find the missing persons from the sinking of the 135 Geumseongho off the coast of Jeju are continuing for the second day.
Jeju Coast Guard vessels are conducting nighttime search operations for missing persons near the site of the sinking of the 135 Geumseongho ship off the coast of Jeju. Photo by Yonhap News
According to the Jeju Coast Guard on the 9th, the night search to find 12 missing persons from the Geumseongho sinking began at 6 p.m. that day. The night search involved 47 vessels, including 23 Coast Guard ships, 4 Navy ships, 7 government vessels, and 13 civilian fishing boats, as well as 5 aircraft. The aircraft dropped 222 flares to illuminate the darkness and will continue the search throughout the night.
Earlier that day, during daylight hours, 51 vessels and 10 aircraft were deployed to conduct a maritime search over an expanded area compared to the previous day. Onshore along the coast of Jeju Island, about 300 people were also involved in the search, continuing for the second day, but no missing persons have been found yet. During the search, patrol vessels collected 29 items of debris, including engine oil containers, styrofoam buoys, and plastic buoys, totaling 12 types of items.
Underwater searches were conducted four times in total, including two dives by divers and two underwater explorations using the Navy's ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle). According to the Coast Guard, the ROV search results indicate that the hull is not overturned or tilted but is resting flat on the seabed, and it is presumed that the net is connected from the bow wheelhouse to the surface.
At around 4:31 a.m. on the 8th, the Coast Guard received a report from a nearby fishing vessel that the 129-ton large purse seiner 135 Geumseongho, registered in Busan, was sinking about 22 km northwest of Biyangdo, Jeju. Of the 27 crew members onboard (16 Koreans, 11 Indonesians), 15 were rescued by nearby vessels, but 2 of the Koreans died. The remaining 12 (10 Koreans, 2 Indonesians) are still missing.
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