Media files and messages were recovered from at least two mobile phones found inside the salvaged Sewol ferry, a committee investigating the wreckage said Friday.
One of the two phones was turned off at 10:01 a.m. on April 16, 2014, the day of the ship’s sinking, which left over 300 dead or missing.
Some of the unread messages on the device said, “Did you escape? You must contact me,” “Heard that police just sent a patrol boat,” “Did you get on a rescue copter?”
Screen capture of a lawmaker Ahn Min-seok's Facebook post about retrieved phones found from Sewol. (Yonhap)
In addition, about 140,000 photos and eight videos were restored from the phone.
The other phone was turned off at 9:47 a.m., when 80 passengers were rescued from the sinking ship. Four minutes later, the port side of the vessel was completely immersed in water as the ship tilted more than 64 degrees. After another batch of passengers was rescued 30 minutes later, Sewol capsized at 10:31.
Based on the last GPS signal detected by the phone, authorities said they would be able to figure out the exact time when the ship was submerged on the day of its sinking.
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said it handed a total of 77 electronic devices retrieved from the Sewol ferry to the independent investigative committee, including mobile phones, digital cameras, vehicles’ black boxes and GPS tracking systems.
But due to a budget deficit, the special committee said it could only ask for the data recovery of 15 mobile phones.
By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)
