South Korean ferry sinking incident -- who are those divers?

[DandyDon]

100 metres deep, near zero visibility, up to 4 knots of current, unstable wreck, unknown obstructions and entanglement, and now a recovery mission not a rescue.

My thoughts are with those divers, they must be brave and dedicated people.

Lets just hope they do not add to the statistics.

Reports vary but 121 feet/37 meters is the deepest I've read. The rest of that description applies tho, along with 54F water temps.

Horrible recovery on all involved. The few short ferries I've been on did not include evacuation drills or even much information and I have wondered how well a crew could handle a panicked evacuation. One young lady of the crew is being described as a hero, but that's the only one I've seen.

 

[cb5150]

The Haenyo for example - Public Safety Divers are not a thing I have ever heard of outside of scubaboard. I know there is certainly no such thing in Australia, water police have their own divers as do military and search and rescue. I think if a member of the public showed up and tried to assist by diving they would be stopped from entering the water for legal reasons.

Wingy, I think you might be misunderstanding the term "Public Safety Divers." This is typically a generic term referring to Police divers and Fire Department divers, not civilians. Many towns and counties in the USA use the term Department of Public Safety to include Police and Fire/Rescue. Our state police in Texas are called the Texas Department of Public Safety.

 

[Stoo]

Whoever they are, they're doing a Hell of a job. Kudos to them and hopefully they'll take some comfort knowing that they're bringing closure to the families who's kids they are recovering.

What a horrible job.

 

[emoreira]

A new article appeared yesterday :
South Korean ferry disaster: grim test for civilian divers searching for Sewol victims | ABC Radio Australia

 

[Wingy]

Thanks for the clarification.