Hope Fads for South Korea Ferry Survivors as Criminal Investigation Picks Up Steam
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone. @ THIS HOUR, hope is fading for finding anyone else alive on the sunken ferry. It's been a week since the disaster in South Korea. Divers are not finding any air pockets where they believed they might be. That's where they hoped they could possibly find survivors. They pulled more bodies from the wreckage, 157, so far. 145 people are missing. Authorities say there are still many rooms left to search.</s>MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Back onshore, the criminal investigation is picking up steam. Authorities have arrested more crew members today. That makes 11 total arrests including the captain. Prosecutors say the searched the ferry company offices and even the home of the companies owner. The people looking through the wreckage are risking their own lives every time they get in the water. The sunken ferry is like a giant obstacle course with danger around them. And divers are navigating all of that in the dark.</s>BERMAN: We want to talk about that with Captain Rich Habib. He's a maritime recovery and salvage expert. He was in charge of the "Costa Concordia" removal in Italy. Captain, we know you're following this very closely. We know you have friends and colleagues who are out there involved in this search. Based on your expertise and based on what you hear for them, explain to me what they're doing right now.</s>CAPT. RICH HABIB, MARITIME RECOVERY & SALVAGE EXPERT: First, it's good to be with you. So there's over 600 divers, I understand, involved in this operation and it's complicated because some of them are government divers. They do have at least one commercial diving company involved. And then they also have volunteers. So they have a mix of diving technologies that they are using out on the site. That makes the operation quite complicated. The depth of the diving is reasonably deep. So that also means that different technologies are brought to bear at different levels and different depths in the ocean to give them time during the search. But between the depth and the cold, these divers are not spending very much time on the bottom. I don't think people quite realize that. They will go down and, depending on where they're at in the ship, they may only spend 20 or 30 minutes down inside the wreck. So what they do is they establish actual lines, down lines. As they get into the ship, they extend these lines further and further. And remember, they can't see anything inside the ship, or very little. It looks like visibility has improved a bit, but even with their lights on their hats and their lights, they can't see their hand in front of their face. So they are working by feel and they work along these lines and that helps them to know where they have been and where they haven't been before.</s>PEREIRA: They don't want to put themselves in danger as well obviously, given what's under there and the challenges of working in that kind of wreckage. I'm curious if you can compare for us the "Costa Concordia" experience you have and you have a cruise ship versus a multiuse ferry. It had mixed-use cargo capacity as well. Talk to us about the difference between the two ships and having to dive into that wreckage.</s>HABIB: I think they are quite different actually. The "Costa Concordia" was not fully submerged. The divers -- there were 32 casualties, which I shouldn't say only, but compared to this incident, fewer casualties. The similarities are that any time a diver goes into a wreck under water, you've got to understand that absolutely everything has come apart, the furniture, the wall coverings, the ceiling panels, the wiring has comes down. It's an absolute choked maze. That's similar between the two. There's an incident that happened in 2008 in the Philippines. It was also a ferry. It was the "Princess of the Stars. And in that incident, over 800 people were lost, that we were involved in, intimately involved in that incident. In that incident, I will tell you that these divers -- you have to actually be very careful to sort of restrain them because they become so emotionally involved in what they're doing, they're willing to risk themselves to recover these victims.</s>BERMAN: I'm sure. Deeply committed to their jobs. Captain, quickly, what's the point when you shift from trying to recover bodies to a salvage operation for the vessel itself? How do you make that decision?</s>HABIB: That's a tough decision to make. So we're still in the rescue-and-recovery phase. Obviously, the divers are not finding air pockets. Although, this ship is a maze so there still -- people hold out hope until the very end because -- you know, the odds are stacked immensely against these folks, but so much of it depends on a person's individual will to live. There was an incident in Nigeria not too long ago where a cook spent two days in a small air pocket well down below the surface quite deep. So it's not out of the question, but it's very difficult. So what will happen is the recovery effort will slow down, the number of bodies the guys are able to recover will start to fall off. The government will make a decision that the best way to continue finding victims is actually to start the salvage operation.</s>BERMAN: Captain Habib, obviously, they are hoping for a miracle but at some point they do have to assume the worse and move on. Great to have you here, have your expertise with us. Appreciate it.</s>HABIB: You're welcome.</s>PEREIRA: We've certainly talked about the ferry captain and crew members that have been arrested. But we want to point out the heroes onboard. One was a 22-year-old crew member, Park Ge Young (ph). The ferry company transferred her to the doomed boat six months ago. Witnesses say she handed out life jackets and helped passengers escape as the ship was going down. She refused to wear a lifejacket herself, putting others first, sacrificing her own life. Without people like her, the death toll would have most certainly been higher. You can check out her story at CNN.com/impact. You can see also how you can impact your world by helping the Red Cross help the families that are now struggling with this loss.</s>BERMAN: They need that help.</s>PEREIRA: Coming up, our Rosa Flores has a look at what it's like on a sinking ship.</s>BERMAN: Then, we'll answer your questions about the search for flight 370. Is this object of interest that they have in their hands right now from the missing plane or are we back to square one? Your questions and answers ahead, @ THIS HOUR.