Sewol Ferry Civil Divers Sue Claiming "Bone Disease," but Lose in First Trial

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] Civil divers who participated in rescue operations during the Sewol ferry disaster filed a lawsuit claiming that the injury ratings assigned to them by the government were unfair, but they lost in the first trial.

On the 10th, according to the legal community, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 5 (Presiding Judge Yangjun Park) dismissed or rejected the claims of eight civil divers, including Mr. A, who filed a lawsuit against the Commissioner of the Korea Coast Guard seeking cancellation of the injury rating decision.

The key issue in this lawsuit was how the court would determine the causal relationship between the Sewol ferry rescue operations and the onset of avascular necrosis, which prevented Mr. A and others from diving for more than seven months.

The court stated, "It is recognized that some plaintiffs were hospitalized and treated due to decompression sickness, a type of avascular necrosis," but ruled, "We cannot acknowledge a causal relationship between the rescue operations and the onset of decompression sickness."

Furthermore, the court added, "It is difficult to deny the possibility that plaintiffs, who have been engaged in diving work for more than 14 years, could have developed decompression sickness even if they had not participated in the Sewol ferry rescue operations and had only continued their regular duties."

The court also cited as grounds for this judgment the fact that among the maritime rescue battalion members who performed longer diving operations than the civilian divers like the plaintiffs during the Sewol ferry rescue activities, no cases of avascular necrosis occurrence or worsening were reported.

Previously, Mr. A and others participated for several months as civilian divers in victim search and rescue operations during the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster. Subsequently, in 2016, they applied for compensation under the Water Rescue Act for injuries related to maritime rescue work.

The Central Maritime Disaster Rescue Countermeasures Committee reviewed their injury ratings and notified them in November of the same year. During this process, avascular necrosis was omitted.

Mr. A and others filed the lawsuit arguing, "We repeatedly dived without taking the essential decompression procedures and rest during the rescue operations, which caused avascular necrosis, but this was omitted from the basis for the injury rating decision, making it unfair."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.