Overnight Search Conducted with 270 Flare Shots, 6 Still Missing

[Anchor]

Overnight search operations have been underway to find the six missing crew members of a tugboat that sank off the coast of Oryukdo, Busan, yesterday afternoon (September 2). No rescue news has been reported yet.

Reporter Lee Seong-hoon has the details.

[Reporter]

The Coast Guard continued its overnight search to find the six missing crew members of the 286-ton tugboat that sank off the coast of Oryukdo in Busan, but no additional survivors have been found yet.

The Coast Guard deployed 19 vessels, including naval ships, and 3 aircraft, while conducting the nighttime search alongside the Air Force by dropping approximately 270 flare shots.

Intensive searches were carried out by dividing a 25-kilometer-wide and 12-kilometer-long sea area into 15 zones, centered around the sunken tugboat resting on the seabed at a depth of 87 meters.

However, due to the deep water and strong currents, diving personnel are facing difficulties in entering the interior of the sunken hull.

It has not yet been confirmed whether the missing persons remain inside the vessel or have drifted out into the sea.

The Coast Guard is continuing its search while also considering the possibility that the missing individuals may have drifted far away from the accident site due to strong currents.

The accident occurred at around 1:30 PM yesterday in waters 9 kilometers east of Oryukdo, Busan.

A total of eight people were on board the tugboat, including six South Koreans and two Indonesians.

Among them, one Indonesian crew member was rescued, while one South Korean crew member was found dead, leaving six people missing—five South Koreans and one Indonesian.

[Rescued Crew Member (Indonesian) : I was in charge of cooking, and while I was cooking (after the ship capsized), I escaped quickly.]

The Coast Guard has established an investigation headquarters and is looking into the exact cause of the accident by questioning the surviving crew members and officials from the container ship that was being towed at the time of the incident.

In particular, authorities plan to closely examine whether the accident occurred while the tugboat was connecting a towline to the container ship or pushing the hull to move it toward the Port of Busan.

(Video reporting: Oh Won-seok, Jeon Jae-hyun KNN | Video editing: Ahn Yeo-jin | Footage courtesy of Busan Coast Guard)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.