A crewwoman sacrifices herself in the sinking ferry

"The crewwoman dressed us with life vests and set us in ease. It is so sad that she failed to escape."

Around 9 a.m. Wednesday, when the ferry "Sewol" sank off Korea`s southern coast, crewwoman Park Ji-yeong failed to escape after she helped evacuate students. When the vessel leaned 45-60 degrees, she was in the cafeteria on the third floor and set 20 students at ease. Dishes were crashing and sofas were falling. It was a chaos. The vessel tilted too much that the students were unable to move. Worse yet, there was no life vest there.

Park wandered around the cabin to look for life vests. She found some life vests and put them on the students. Then she went to other students who were leaning against the table. To the students in fear, she stood face to face with them and said in a smiling face, "Don`t panic. We will be rescued."

The students held on to the tables or lay down according to announcement, "Don`t move." But water started to fill up the cabin. The vessel was on the brink of sinking and Park shouted, "Jump into the sea!" The students raised the body against the tilting ship and escaped into the sea. They were rescued by fishing boats waiting for them. However, Park was seen nowhere afterwards.

Park was found at around noon by ocean police. One girl student who was hospitalized said in tears, "We were all in panic, and she encouraged us. But she couldn`t escape from the ship. This is unbelievable."

When the catastrophic situation was unfolding, a crewman surnamed Kang was issuing an evacuation announcement. He stayed in the ship to guide the students out and managed to escape at the last minute. He was moved to a gym at 2 p.m. but was suffering from a severely low body temperature since he was submerged in the sea for a long time. While being treated by five medical doctors, he said, "Park and I were at the cafeteria on the third floor protecting the students. I feel so sad that she died." He was immediately moved to the hospital.