Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
LessMore
Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
When did MV Sewol sink?
The ferry listed and capsized on the morning of 16 April 2014 in the Yellow Sea near Jindo, on the Incheon–Jeju route. It had left Incheon the previous night.
How many people died?
Korean official accounting used in the trials is 304 dead or missing out of 476 aboard, with 172 rescued. About 250 of the dead were Danwon High School students. Early search tallies of recovered bodies and still-missing persons shifted by single digits as the salvage continued.
Who was convicted?
Captain Lee Joon-seok received a life sentence, upheld by the Supreme Court on 12 November 2015, for homicide by wilful negligence and related counts. Other crew received terms from about 18 months to 12 years on the final appeal path. Some Coast Guard and regulatory officials were separately convicted or dismissed.
What caused the capsize?
Courts and investigation bodies pointed to a combination of a sharp turn, excess and poorly secured cargo, reduced stability after rebuilding, and insufficient ballast — not a wartime act and not a single unexplained hole.
Why did passengers stay inside?
Repeated announcements told them to wait. The captain did not issue a timely abandon-ship order. The Supreme Court treated that omission, plus the crew’s departure, as the core of the homicide-by-wilful-negligence finding.
When was the ship raised?
The hull was brought up on 23 March 2017 and later moved for examination and memorial use. Salvage was meant to recover remaining missing people and to preserve the ship as evidence.
Ordinary criminal process ran beside extraordinary commissions.
English readers saw the commissions as “the inquiry.” Korean law distinguished them from the crew trial.
Agencies
- Korean prosecutors and courts — Charged and tried the crew; produced the 2014–15 homicide path to a life sentence.
- Joint police investigation — Mapped cargo, rebuild and the Chonghaejin network in the first months.
- Special Investigation Commission — Created under the 2014 Special Act to examine state as well as company failure; later politically contested.
- Korea Coast Guard / successor bodies — First responders and, after reform, the institution whose command decisions were themselves investigated.
What followed
- Rescue, then recover
The first day was framed as rescue. It became a recovery and identification operation within hours.
- Seize the company file
Load sheets, rebuild permits and owner links were pulled while the hull was still in the channel.
- Try the crew first
Prosecutors led with the people who had left the ship, not with the distant owner.
- Upgrade the charge
The 2015 appeal accepted homicide by wilful negligence rather than negligence alone.
- Legislate a special inquiry
The Special Act answered families who did not trust an ordinary ministry report.
- Lift the exhibit
The 2017 salvage treated the ship as evidence and as a promise to the still missing.
Turning points
- Stay-put audio — Once announcements were public, the crew’s departure could not be narrated as confusion alone.
- April 2015 homicide verdict — The appeals court changed the legal name of the captain’s crime.
- March 2017 lift — The raised hull closed the “ship still on the bottom” phase of Korean memory.
Investigation produced convictions. It did not produce a single uncontested map of every state omission.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.