South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reports that the Korea Coast Guard is seeking an arrest warrant for the captain of a passenger vessel that ran aground off South Jeolla province last week.
The coast guard said the captain of the Ro-Pax ferry Queen Jenuvia II is facing charges of gross negligence and abandoning his duties in relation to the grounding incident involving the vessel on Wednesday, November 19.
Of the 267 passengers and crew, 30 suffered injuries from the incident and were later treated in hospital.
The ferry's first mate and one of the three helmsmen have been arrested due to gross negligence resulting in injury. The first mate was found to have been distracted on his mobile phone while the vessel was transiting a narrow channel on autopilot whereas only manual control was permitted in the area due to the presence of nearby small islands.
Officials said that, because the first mate was distracted, he failed to regain control of the ferry and execute a necessary course change in time, which then resulted in the vessel running aground on an uninhabited island near Jangsan.
The ferry was later towed to port.
The coast guard said that the captain had left the bridge and was in his cabin when the incident occurred.
The ferry had veered nearly three kilometres off-course while underway between Jeju and Mokpo on Wednesday night (local time) as a result of the first mate's failure to regain manual control.
