courtley expert on divers and rescues and former navy s.e.a.l. pauline, set the scene for us there. you are in front of many grieving families waiting for any shred of information and demanding answers. >> yeah. the families have been gathered here the past three days along this harbor front asking for answers, pleading with government officials not to waste anytime time as we are in to this 72 hours plus. here's the latest on the search effort. divers have been able to reach the third level of the ship. they were able to see three floating bodies and they tried to get to them by breaking a window. they were unsuccessful because the currents are so difficult. yesterday, one of the search lines actually got cut off. that gives you an idea how difficult this is. the families are hanging on to that hope that perhaps there might be an air pocket somewhere. there are still 270 people

missing. perhaps somewhere and that's what they are hanging on to and asking so many good, technical questions of the officials. >> what happened a few minutes ago is we saw the parents peppering the coast guard with questions. they wanted to know why they couldn't break in the windows them coast guard saying we tried to use an ax but the pressure is too great. it's been another agonizing day for these families as the search brought no results. >> ferry captain answering a question consuming hundreds of desperate relatives. why would you order passengers to stay on a sinking ship. the current was very high and the temperature was told. if you had a life jacket if you got off the boat with no judgment you would have been swept very far away, he says. the captain is handcuffed. arrested on five charges including abandoning ship and

causing bodily injury as a resulting in death according to south korean news agency. in this newly released video, you can see the captain right after he was rescued from his own sinking ship while hundreds of others were left behind n. the eyes of many here in south korea, he's public enemy number one. prosecutors today reveal the captain wasn't on the bridge when the boat began to sink, but still hold him responsible for failing to slow down while sailing the narrow route and making the turn excessively. also released today radio traffic between the ferry and authorities. the first sign of distress was 8:55 a.m. local time. all that remains of the ferry are buoys marking in it position. in this survivor's video, the

ship is already at an extreme angle as passengers clamor to high ground. others brace themselves inside as they were instructed by the crew. it's unclear if these people made it out alive. one man, who did make it out alive, couldn't bear the reality in the end. in a wooded area near where distraught relatives are camped out in jindo, police say the viens principal of the school where the kids attended hung himself. in his suicide note, police say he took responsibility for the loss of life and ask canned for his ashes to be placed over the site. his suicide has heightened fears that relatives of the missing may soon do the same. >> i want to jump in to the sea, she says. thinking about my child in the sea, how as i as a parent eat or drink? i hate myself for this. >> the vice principal did leave a detailed suicide note.

the police would not give us the entirety of the text but what they did say is he felt it was his responsibility because he had suggested the field trip in the first place. that he could not live not knowing about the fate of the 200 plus students that are missing and that he wished after his body was found that he be cremated and his ashes be spread at the site of the recovery. >> this is causing so much more heart ache for the community. there are so many poignant stories from families that we have spoken. i spoke to one woman that had gone to jeju island. her daughter didn't want to go on the school trip. she said i just went with you. the mother convinced her to go saying it will be a good experience for you and your friends and that is a decision this mother regretted. so many sad stories. the families are asking very good technical questions. i think one of the things they

are asking about is how to get in to the ship and such a large ship. this is a ferry that can carry 900 passengers. it had 1,000 containers on the bottom, more than 100 vehicles. 6,800 tons. bill, perhaps you can ask your guests, how do you stabilize this ship that size and try to preserve any sort of possible air pocket? we know there are four cranes on site waiting to do that. >> let's bring it to our professor. this is a 6800 ton boat. cade, our navy s.e.a.l. was suggesting they should focus on cutting in to the side of the hulls opposed to diving under. how would that work? would that release whatever air is inside? >> well, if you are talking to me, bill, i would imagine if you are going to cut in to the side or the upward-facing part of the hull, then you are going to have

to put a bail or something over it so that water doesn't rush in as soon as you cut through the hole. >> cade, have you done any underwater welding work? how long will it take for divers to cut through the health hull? >> here's the situation with this. four huge cranes. you are not trying to lift the ship out of the water. that's not going to happen but what you can do with the four cranes is stabilize it and probably bring it up about ten feet. instead of jamming around and essentially, you know, the waters you are dealing with right now on the surf, you have a stable platform that is no longer sinking. now you start to cut in to the ship. instead of divers going all the way down and trying to come up one, two, three at a time. you have crews that are going down. that's going to be the best bet.

you have controlled the ship. you have controlled the situation. and you have cut holes in and you are going down to try to find survivors and with that many people and that large of a ship, somebody is still alive right now. i guarantee it. somebody is still alive and that makes it worth it. >> the one bit of video. this is a story from months back. a nigerian chef aboard a tug boat was found sort of up to his waist in water but alive. this is what the parents are hopeful of and cade and press are saying we have to keep hope alive because there's proof that somebody can survive in a air pocket. they reached out for an arm and the guy reached back. there's his hand. when the diver. this is the camera on the diver's helmet poked his head up you saw a gentleman down there three days and had barely enough air to hold on. the water in the sea that's off

the coast of south korea is much colder than this. hypothermia is a much bigger threat but that's the kind of threat of hope everybody's hanging to. stay with us. we'll update you on the story and go back to australia and update you on developments for the search for malaysian flight 370. and check in with michael holmes in perth. stay with us. in the face of danger, and under the most demanding circumstances. experience builds character. experience builds confidence. and experience... has built this. the 2014 glk. the engineering, and the experience, of mercedes-benz. see your authorized dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. at any minute... ...you could be a victim of fraud. most people don't even know it.

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we will have more on the frantic recovery efforts in and the sunken ferry. bluefin-21 back in the seventh mission, we understand. let's make sure. cnn's michael holmes is live in perth. michael? >> yeah, bill. if it is not on the seventh mission it is close to it. the sixth mission did end and bluefin-21 surfaced.

they download the data. it takes four hours to do that and recharge the batteries and send it down again. three of the first five missions, though, did have some issues. as you'll remember. yesterday, the fifth mission was aborted shortly after launch. they had problems with the navigation system. that was fixed and it went down again. obviously no data from that mission. so far, they have covered 130 square kilometers, 50 miles of the ocean floor and they have a long way to go in this shrunken search area. they are focusing on could take another week or so to cover that. they say they won't give up even after then. the air and sea search continues. nearly a week since angus houston said that would wind down in the days ahead. it's still going even though no wreckage has been found. since weeks since the disappearance of flight 370. >> if memory serves, the bluefin

has had trouble with going too deep. it had trouble with oil or some oil of mechanical problem and now this. it's not exactly filling us with confidence but they don't seem daunted. >> no, you are right. on the surface of it, you can say well, three out of six missions they have had an issue but those running it say this is a highly technical piece of equipment. it is also going down further than it has ever been before, going down 4700 meters. the first time it aborted is because of a fail safe mechanism built in to the software that said when you get to 4500 square meters come back up which is what it did. they reprogrammed that. they say the second oil problem, oil that protects electronics inside said it wasn't a big deal. so they are basically saying it is working pretty well when it is at the bottom.

they are getting great images of the bottom. sadly nothing that is showing sign of the flight but they keep coming back and saying a couple of glitches doesn't mean much. this is working well and doing the job it's meant to do. it does slow things down at a time where everybody is hoping and praying for some results. >> michael holmes. appreciate the update. when we come back, more on the sunken ferry in south korea. stay with us.

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went down is called the sea wall. time is working against the frantic effort there with scores of boats on the surface of the yellow sea, around that sunken vessel.

scores of divers ready to go beneath that sea, as well. today some dramatic new developments as the captain, 69-year-old man, was let out in handcuffs, taken by the authorities and questioned in handcuffs. pauline chiou and kyunh lah are there. it was interesting to see him answer the accusations while in custody, kyung? >> the families are angry about what they find out what happened in the steering room. the captain does face five criminal counts which could, if convicted give him five years to life in prison. they include negligence that led to the sinking of the ship. abandoning the ship because as we saw he was able to get in the rescue boats and left many passengers on the ship.

also another charge, causing bodily injury that resulted in deaths and not seeking refuge from ships. here's what they have told cnn, that the captain was not in the steering room at the time of the accident. they say it is unclear where he was. the person who was at the steering wheel was a third mate. according to what we have been reading here in terms of the rules here when there's a third mate at the helm of the ship, the captain should be in the room. this kind of information is really just so aggravating to the families. now he did a couple of days ago say publicly to television cameras, i'm so sorry for what happened. i'm at a loss for words. but that apology not doing much for the families. >> the q and a session with reporters when he was handcuffed he explained, bill, that he was tending to something in his bedroom. so that certainly is not helping things here among the families.

>> yeah he said he was attending to something in his cabin and said the tidal was strong and the temperature cold. there was no rescue boat so i had everyone standby and wait for the rescue boat to arrive. the obvious followup, what about the lifeboats that were not deployed. is it confirmed that one with of dozens of lifeboats were actually put in to the water? >> that's what we are hearing. we have not gotten confirmation from the captain himself that one of the 46 was deployed. you can certainly understand how that enrages the families. from what we do know about what the captain is saying is that he did actually make that announcement for everyone to stay put, to stay in their cabins. that is something we didn't know until he did address some of the reporter questions. that he was one who initially made the call that everyone stay put as the ship was sinking and

that is enraging a lot of people, as well. >> we have been speaking with survivors, bill, who say they heard that announcement. many of them decided to stay put. they put on their life jackets. some decided not to listen to that. as we know, there were two hours that they had between the distress call that came at 8:55 a.m. and the ship was virtually underwater by 11:00. so there was precious time that was lost. so the people who didn't listen to that and were able to get to the deck had a better chance, of course, of being saved. it is this kind of information, bill, the information that the captain was not in the steering room and the fact the passengers were told to stay put when they could have tried to get to safety is what is angering so many of the families here. >> you don't have to be a sailor to know one of the oldest rules of the sea is it is women and children first. the captain goes down with the ship. it is maritime law in many ways.

if i have the time line right, the announcement to stay in the cabin, did that run for the entire two hours, or was it a half hour? however long, it was precious time lost. sglit was precious time lost and it's very unclear. the captain did say to reporters that he did eventually make the announcement to abandon ship. the timing is what everyone needs to know. the initial announcement was recorded. it did say a man's voice say stay put in place. the natural question then is why did everybody listen? remember who we are talking about here. these are high school students. they were on a four-day field ship. they were under a guardianship of their teachers. here in korea, the thang is prized most above all else is obedience. parents teach this to their children from the time they are bompbl you want to listen to your elders. so in western nations, it's

absolutely unbelievable. but a sinking ship, someone who's 17 or 18 would actually listen to an announcement and stay inside of their cabin. it's not so surprising here. that also is turning some cultural norms on its head. a lot of parents wondering what is wrong with what happened here? not just on the ship but also in this country. >> i wonder if there was any sort of disaster drill before they set sail. obviously there's a big difference between staten island ferry and a cruise ship to the caribbean, but on the bigger boats usually before you cast off, everybody has to know where the life jacket is. there's rallying points and that. do you have any sense if these kids were prepared in that way or this was a much more casual boat ride? >> we don't have any sense of whether or not they actually were given a drill before they set sail on tuesday evening. we do know this is a ferry boat

that has -- it's an overnight ferry. this school had booked this ferry for a four-day holiday. this is the kind of ship where there's these big sleeping areas. it's like a big common room where 20 or so people can sleep in the same room. we know from talking to survivors there were life jackets and that we spoke to some adult survivors who said they heard the same announcement. they put on their life jackets and they were waiting, but as soon as water started to seep in to the rooms the adults, at least that i have spoken with, said, listen, we have to get out of here, or else we are not going to have a chance. things happen quickly because you see the video of how the ship started to list quite quickly within two hours. >> i haven't ridden the ferry to jeju island but i have ridden other ferries from where this ferry left and i can tell you and the smaller ferries there

are similar to when you get on to a plane, flying from dallas to chicago or any plane in the country. they do a here's where the evacuation sites are. just announcements, safety warnings. they are general. that's something that is pretty customary on any ferry. we don't have any specifics on how specific it was. we don't know if there were evacuation drills done for the crew. that's a big question, as well, bill. >> okay, ladies. please stand by if you will. we will be back with much more on our breaking news off of the coast of south korea. four-wheel steering is why i get up in the morning. [ matt ] the only thing better than the smell of fresh-cut grass is the smell of perfectly level, fresh-cut grass. that yellow seat's my favorite chair.

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submerged. what are you seeing, paula. >> reporter: there's no sign of the ferry anymore. the only way you know it is here because there are two large inflatables marking the spot and the sheer number of vessels on the water. i counted more than 120, ranging from the big warships to the small, private fishing vessels involved in this as well. a couple of helicopters overhead and four large floatable cranes, which at this point do not appear to be any part of this search and rescue operation. now the crux of what is happening is below the water. we can't see what's happening. very little visibility through this water. it is very murky. we can see the divers on top of the water. there are a number of inflatable dingies and they are the heart of the search and rescue operation to see if there are survivors. one thing worth noting in the last couple of hours we have

noticed a significant oil slick on the surface, bill? >> okay, paula. there's hope against hope, by parents there that one of their little high schoolers will be rescued. if that happens we will have it here at cnn. i'm bill weir. have a good weekend. ♪