Passengers wait for words

'I am sorry,' captain says

Experts say the vessel could have hit an underwater rock.

The Coast Guard has been questioning the ship's captain and other crew members to determine what went wrong. Coast Guard officials said they found that the ill-fated ship deviated from a government-recommended route.

The ship also made a sharp turn in direction although it is supposed to make a gradual turn, Coast Guard officials said. The loud bang before the sinking could be from cargo shifting from the turn, experts said.

A total of 325 passengers were students from a high school in Ansan, just south of Seoul. They were on a school trip to Jeju and about 200 of the students remain unaccounted for.

The nine dead included four 17-year-old students and a 25-year-old teacher from the high school, as well as a 22-year-old female crew member. But the identities of the other three were not immediately known.

The Coast Guard said that three foreigners, including two Filipinos, were on board, without giving further details on the identity and the condition of the three.

The government has come under strong fire over its handling of the disaster. It has even been unable to figure out exactly how many people were aboard the ship, and it revised the figure, as well as the numbers of those rescued and missing, many times.

Survivors also blamed the ship's crew, saying they were repeatedly told to stay put where they were, even when the ship began tilting. Had they been told to evacuate earlier, more people would have survived the disaster, they said.

Reports say the ship's captain was one of the first to leave the vessel.

Police, meanwhile, are trying to check the authenticity of an alleged text message sent to one of the missing students' family members claiming that several people have survived in an air pocket of the capsized ferry, officers said.

The police, however, said they are not ruling out the possibility that the message could have been sent by someone as a prank.

The ship, which plies between Incheon and Jeju twice a week, was built in Japan in 1994, is 146 meters long and 22 meters wide, and has the maximum capacity of carrying 921 people, 180 vehicles and 152 shipping containers at the same time.

The United States expressed its condolences to the families of those killed.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of those who lost their lives on board the South Korea ferry, the Sewol," Marie Harf, the State Department's deputy spokeswoman, said at the start of a daily press briefing.

She described the incident as a "terrible tragedy."

The United States is ready to provide any assistance needed in the ongoing search-and-rescue efforts, she said.

On Wednesday, the US military send an amphibious assault ship equipped with two helicopters to the scene to help with the search and rescue operations. The ship was on its routine patrol mission in the western sea.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also expressed condolences and sympathy for the victims.