South Korea ferry sinking: 'I am sorry,' captain says as 287 still missing - CNN

• At least 9 people are dead and 287 are missing, the coast guard says


• Family members tried to take a boat out to the sunken ship, but some fainted

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Jindo, South Korea (CNN) -- With each passing minute, the possibility of survival diminishes.

But the families of nearly 300 passengers still missing from a sunken ferry boat have nothing to cling on to but hope.

It's been more than 24 hours since the ferry, which carried 475 people, sank off the southwestern coast of South Korea.

South Korean Coast Guard members search for survivors from the Sewol, a South Korean ferry, as it sinks in the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, April 16. It's not yet known what caused the incident.

Rescue teams and fishing boats try to rescue passengers on April 16. Most of the people on board were high school students on their way to a resort island called Jeju.

A relative of a passenger aboard the ferry cries as she waits for news April 16.

The body of a ferry passenger is moved into a hospital in Jindo, South Korea, on April 16.

Relatives check a list of survivors April 16 in Jindo.

Relatives of missing ferry passengers wait for news at a gym in Jindo.

Rescue crews attempt to save passengers from the ferry.

A South Korean Coast Guard helicopter lifts passengers off the vessel on April 16.

Police and rescue teams carry a passenger at the port in Jindo on April 16.

A relative waits for a missing loved one at the port in Jindo.

Parents at Danwon High School in Ansan, South Korea, search for names of their children among the list of survivors. Ansan is a suburb of Seoul, the South Korean capital.

Helicopters hover over the ferry as rescue operations continue April 16.

A man in Seoul watches a news broadcast about the sinking vessel.

Officials escort rescued passengers April 16 in Jindo.

A passenger is helped onto a rescue boat on April 16.

A passenger is rescued from the sinking ship on April 16.

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Photos: South Korean ship sinks

Families of missing ferry students wait

Nine people are dead. At least 179 have been rescued. But no one knows whether the 287 still missing are alive, perhaps on the ship, or if they succumbed to the frigid water about 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit.)

"I am sorry," Lee Joon Suk, the captain of the ship, told reporters Thursday as they peppered him with questions about what happened.

"I am at a loss for words," he said, as he sat at a Coast Guard station, facing possible charges of negligence.

At the Peng Mok Harbor in Jindu, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the site of the accident, family members spend the hours staring at the water.

They have camped out here since Wednesday. Mothers and grandmothers huddled together, crying and comforting each other.

Chang Min, whose son is a second grader, said he was furious that search officials were using the word "investigation" and not the word "rescue."

"If the government cares for the people, our family, our children, please rescue our families and our children," he said.

He, like many others, are angry at the pace of the process.

But rescue officials are at the mercy of the elements. It's drizzling, making for poor visibility. The water currents are powerful, making for dangerous operations.

On Thursday afternoon, crews were trying to get a crane out to stabilize the ship.

"The maritime police told them they will start the rescue process again today," Chang said. "I'm going to wait and try to trust them and believe in them. But if they say they can't, I'm going to grab them and drag them into the sea. We'll die together."

Hope for survival

The hope for survivors largely hinges on whether trapped passengers are in isolated pockets of air on the ship.

Most of the bedrooms of the 353 passengers were on the fourth level of the five-floor boat.

But passengers faced a terrifying choice as the vessel rolled: obey commands barked over loudspeakers to stay in place, or don life vests and jump into the chilly ocean water.

"Don't move," a voice warned, according to a recording obtained by CNN affiliate YTN. "If you move, it's dangerous. Don't move."

That announcement, some witnesses worried, may have cost some passengers on the Sewol ferry their lives.

"We were told to stay where you are, so we kept staying," survivor Hyun Hung Chang told YTN. "But later on, the water level came up. So we were beside ourselves. Kids were screaming out of terror, shouting for help."

"Kids were forced to stay put," another survivor told YTN. "So only some of those who moved survived."

'Please come back'

At Ansan Danwon High School in the suburb of Seoul, parents sat on mats, clutching their cell phones for a call from their children that never came.

On one wall, officials have posted a list of names. Once a confirmation of a rescue came, they circled that name. On Wednesday, soon after the ship sank, several names were circled in rapid succession.

But so many remain untouched.

At one point Wednesday, the school announced that all students had been rescued but soon backtracked, to the parents' wrath.

Even though the school was closed Thursday, students and teachers arrived to seek comfort in numbers.

"Please be alive," said messages written in classroom chalkboards. "Please come back."

On Thursday, several parents took a boat to try to go the accident site. But several of them became so distraught that they fainted. The boat turned back.

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