Here is detailed description.
"The first instructions from the captain were for the passengers to put on life jackets and stay put, and it was not until about 30 minutes later that he ordered an evacuation, Oh Yong-seok, a 58-year-old crew member, told The Associated Press. But Oh said he wasn’t sure if the captain’s order, given to crew members, was actually relayed to passengers on the public address system.
Several survivors also told the AP that they never heard any evacuation order."
Well, consider also that many of the passengers were also high school students on a school trip. Most decently-behaved teenage students, in any culture, are going to do what the adults tell them. I well remember from my American school field trips that acting out with the teachers was bad enough, but disobedience or disrespect toward employees or authorities of the venue being visited was met with fire and brimstone.
I’ve read reports that say almost none of the lifeboats were used. The captain was too busy jumping ship to organize a proper evacuation. So many students could have been saved in those lifeboats.
One of the students who died gave up his own lifejacket to save his friend. He leaves behind a widowed mother and a younger sister, whom he was helping to support. Another survivor is a five-year-old girl whose entire family is still missing and probably dead.
The latest is that the third officer was in charge at the time, and the captain may not even have been on the bridge. Arrest warrants have been issued for him and two crew members. There’s video showing the captain among the rescued too, so it will be difficult for him to deny he left the ship as charged.
Sure they would. If you have no idea what to do, you tend to listen to those in authority. We tend to think of them as knowledgeable. Several boat stories in the news have shown us this is not always the case, but still.
I’m not sure that culture is even that big a factor here. As a ship’s passenger, I think it’s really hard to know in the early stages of a crisis whether it’s safer to stay on the ship or jump off into strong, cold ocean currents. Later, when the ship is severely tilted, it’s going to be physically really difficult to make one’s way through the ship.
I have to wonder about his physical safety. Being arrested might be the best thing that could have happened to him at this point.
You’ll note in that link that, in response to the ensuing rage from, well, just about anyone else in the country, the twerp commenced lying his tush off.
Hope they are kept very safe, and extremely healthy, and that he especially lives a long life in jail being reminded that he is a sorry excuse for a human.
I wasn’t worried about other people in prison harming him. I worry he’d kill himself if he got the chance. If he’s jailed, he’s less likely to be able to do that.