KB News Desk
1 rescued, 2 dead, 5 remain missing as of Thursday
One of the six crew members missing from a tugboat that capsized off Busan last week was found dead more than 100 kilometers away in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province.
The body of a 56-year-old Korean crew member of the TNS Catcher was discovered at around 8:48 a.m. Wednesday near Dogu Beach in Nam-gu, Pohang, according to the Busan Coast Guard.
A street cleaner working nearby found the body on the beach in front of a portable toilet.
The Coast Guard said it identified the crew member through digital forensic analysis of a cellphone and smartwatch found with the body, along with a detailed fingerprint comparison.
After an identification process that took more than 12 hours, the man was confirmed to be the tugboat’s second engineer, the Coast Guard said.
“Standard fingerprint analysis could not establish his identity, so investigators conducted a detailed one-to-one comparison between fingerprints taken from the body and those of the second engineer, which confirmed the match,” the Coast Guard said.
The body is believed to have drifted more than 100 km from the accident site along ocean currents.
The TNS Catcher capsized Sept. 2 about 9 kilometers off Oryukdo, Busan, while towing a container ship that had been disabled by engine trouble.
The vessel was carrying eight crew members: six Koreans and two Indonesians. One Indonesian was rescued, while one Korean was found unconscious and later died. The remaining six were reported missing, prompting further search operations.
Analysis of CCTV footage taken during the accident showed that two of the six missing crew members escaped from the tugboat immediately after it capsized and fell into the water, according to the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard has been searching the accident area for more than a week, but strong winds and high waves have hampered operations.
“We have expanded the search area to waters off Gangwon and North Gyeongsang provinces to find the remaining five crew members,” the Coast Guard said.
