We've been searching for 12 missing people for nine hours.What are the conditions in the area of the accident?

■ Host: Lee Se-na, anchor Na Kyung-chul
■ Telephone connection: Lee Sang-gap, emeritus professor of marine system engineering, Korea Maritime University

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN New Square 2PM] when quoting.

[Anchor]
Then, let's connect experts to see what the difficulties we face at the current rescue site and what is the most important task for rescuing missing people.

Let's connect with Lee Sang-gap, an honorary professor of marine system engineering at the Korea Maritime University. Professor, can you hear me? Hello.

[Strange]
Hello.

[Anchor]
It's been nine hours since the accident. Ten hours are approaching. I'm sure you heard the Coast Guard briefing a little while ago.How do you see the situation on the ground?

[Strange]
There are 12 missing people on board right now, but there are 2 people and then 10 people at sea, and there must be a lot of algae and the temperature is very low, so it seems to be quite difficult right now.

[Anchor]
I think the weather in the area of the accident is important for the rescue activities, but the northeast wind is blowing at 4-6 meters per second in the area of the accident and the wave height is within 2 meters. In this situation, is the condition that the structure is difficult, how do you judge it?

[Strange]
It doesn't seem that the sea condition is that bad right now. I think that's okay because the wave height is about 3-4m.

[Anchor]
Then the water depth is 87m. The deeper the water depth, the more difficult it is to rescue, right?

[Strange]
The depth is very important. It's 80-90m, so it looks quite deep. Even if our water rescue team goes down the water depth now, the water depth is expected to have a great impact to the extent that it goes down halfway. It seems to be quite deep.

[Anchor]
I'm expecting some difficulties. There is likely to be a rescue time that is usually viewed as golden time in such a sinking accident, but now there are 12 missing people. Do you think Golden Time is okay at this point when 10 hours have passed and we are heading towards it? What do you think?

[Strange]
The crew members in the cabin are also very deep at 87m, and even if there is an air pocket, the possibility of an air pocket seems to be small given the current structure of the fishing boat and the process of overturning is not very fast and has been slow. Also, the golden time is not fixed for our sailors who are currently floating at sea due to hypothermia, but I think it's quite difficult because a lot of time has passed.

[Anchor]
You said that there is a risk of hypothermia because the possibility of air pockets is a little low and the sea temperature is also low. It is said that the accident occurred when the catch was overturned in the process of transferring it to a carrier. It is said to be a 129-ton ship fishing boat, so should I consider it a fishing boat that is likely to overturn? How do you see it?

[Strange]
It is said that it is a fairly large fishing boat compared to ordinary small fishing boats and is the main line that commands a legion of fishing boats. In order to reduce the tonnage of fishing boats these days, it is the process of collating in various places and moving the catch for the second time, and there is a net, so I don't know the specific problem, but I think there might have been a problem with resilience.

[Anchor]
Is there a time when you pull a net like this that can cause a ship to rewind or overturn due to its weight, what do you think?

[Strange]
In the process of citing or controlling nets, 25 out of 27 crew members worked together on the deck, so I think the restoration might have been weak or dangerous. However, we need more data in the future to talk about it in detail, but it is vague. In that way, fishing boats are generally small fishing boats, but there are so many rollover accidents. In particular, in fishing boats, there are many crew members on the deck during the process of working, and the catch is also concentrated on the moving side.

[Anchor]
Above all, the missing people should be rescued safely. We will have to rescue without giving up hope until the end. Above all, it is very unfortunate that many of them do not wear life vests. I think this part will be a variable.

[Strange]
I think so, too. However, not only Korean fishing boats but also life vests are very burdensome and uncomfortable when working, so I'm not supposed to wear them, but I think it would be good to pay attention to those things and wear them more conveniently at any time. Most of our sailors at sea don't have life vests, so it seems to be a big problem.

[Anchor]
The search is underway now, and the Coast Guard is considering whether to lift the hull itself altogether or conduct an underwater search. What are the differences between lifting the hull and underwater search, and in what cases?

[Strange]
As I mentioned on the broadcast, the underwater search went down about 30 meters and couldn't go down further because it was deep, but there is a little more hope if divers and sailors who say they were in the cabin using various equipment are helped by air pockets, but if it is lifted, it takes more time and more equipment than diving, so I personally think it should be done faster as an urgent task to do the underwater search first.

[Anchor]
The safety of the rescue team is also important during the search process, so what do you think we should be careful about?

[Strange]
In general, when the water depth is shallow, it appeared on the broadcast earlier, but especially in the case of fishing boats, it is surrounded by nets, so there are quite a lot of problems now because our rescue workers are tied to the nets. Our rescuers will be careful about that, but there's also that. In particular, since the current accident ship is quite deep, the diving crew's descent into the accident ship Venus itself is also quite deep, which is likely to be a big problem. I want you to be careful about that.

[Anchor]
I see. So far, we have talked about this accident with Lee Sang-gap, professor emeritus of marine system engineering at the Korea Maritime University. Thank you, professor.