Blue search light cast by South Korean Coast Guard helicopter shows a sunken ferry in the water off the southern coast near Jindo, South Korea, Thursday, April 17, 2014. Fears rose Thursday for the fate of more than 280 passengers still missing more than 24 hours after their ferry flipped onto its side and filled with water off the southern coast of South Korea. (AP Photo/Yonhap) KOREA OUT
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Prosecutors say they've asked a court to issue an arrest warrant for the captain of the South Korean ferry that sank two days ago, leaving hundreds missing and feared dead.
Prosecutors said Friday that they have also requested arrest warrants for two other crew members.
Police said a high school vice principal who had been rescued from the ferry was found hanging Friday from a pine tree on Jindo, an island near the sunken ship where survivors have been housed. He was the leader of a group of 325 students traveling on the ship on a school excursion, and said in a suicide note that he felt guilty for being alive while more than 200 of his students were missing.
The investigation into the ferry disaster has focused on the sharp turn it took just before it started listing and whether a quicker evacuation order by the captain could have saved lives. Investigators are also determining whether the captain abandoned the ship.
Rescuers are struggling to find about 270 people still missing and feared dead.
At least 28 bodies have been recovered. Officials said there were 179 survivors and about 270 people remain missing, many of them high school students.
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