BUSAN — An overnight search for six crew members missing after a tugboat capsized and sank off Oryukdo Island near Busan ended without finding anyone, authorities said. The Korea Coast Guard said relatively warm water temperatures leave survival possible and that it has mobilized vessels, aircraft and a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) in an all-out search.
The Busan Coast Guard Station said on the 3rd that a night search conducted from 7 p.m. the previous day until 6 a.m. that morning failed to locate any of the missing. The search zone spans an area 25 kilometers by 12 kilometers centered on the point where the tugboat, identified only as vessel A, went down. The Coast Guard divided the area into 15 sectors and deployed 19 vessels from the Coast Guard, the Navy, the Busan city government and the fire service.
During the night search, the Coast Guard and the Air Force dropped 270 flares to illuminate the sea, while an ROV from the Navy vessel Gwangyang was used for underwater searching. One Coast Guard helicopter and two Air Force aircraft joined the aerial search.
Strong winds and fast currents are seen as the biggest variables in the operation. Water temperatures near Oryukdo Island were a relatively warm 25.1 degrees Celsius at the time of the accident, but poor sea conditions have hampered the search, officials said. Under international aeronautical and maritime search and rescue guidelines, a person missing at sea in water above 20 degrees Celsius can survive for more than 40 hours.
The accident occurred at about 1:29 p.m. the previous day in waters roughly 9 kilometers east of Oryukdo Island. The 286-ton tugboat, registered in Busan, capsized and sank completely about two hours later, at around 3:27 p.m.
Eight people were aboard at the time — six South Koreans and two Indonesians. One Indonesian crew member was rescued by a nearby merchant ship, and one South Korean crew member found inside the vessel was taken to a hospital but later died. The search continues for the remaining six.
