Transcripts of the last communications between the crew of the sunken South Korean ferry and traffic controller revealed the chaos, confusion, panic, and indecision of the crew members in handling the evacuation of the passengers.

Reports said the crew members delayed the evacuation of the passengers because they said they were afraid that the people might drift away with the strong current.

Like Us on Facebook

The traffic controllers repeatedly told the crew to let the passengers wear life vests and make them escape, but the crew members insisted on telling the passengers not to move.

The crew members kept asking if the passengers will be rescued right away if they let them escape as the controllers repeatedly told them to prepare the people for evacuation. It was only at 9:30 am, before the last communication was recorded, that an evacuation had been ordered by the crew.

Officials are saying that more passengers could have been saved had the crew followed the traffic controllers' orders to immediately evacuate the passengers.

South Korean President, Park Geun-hye, said the captain and the crew must answer for their behavior, which he said was tantamount to murder.

Captain Lee-Joon-seok, who was arrested Saturday for negligence and abandonment of ship, has apologized on national TV to the families.

He defended his actions before the investigators saying he did the right thing.

Four more crew members were arrested for negligence.

Search teams have retrieved 30 more bodies from the ill-fated ship, bringing to 64 the total number of bodies found so far since retrieval operations began. There have been no survivors found since the ship went down.

South Korean officials said more than 100 divers continue to search for bodies in the sunken ferry but are finding it difficult to enter the cabins and the ship floors due to poor visibility and darkness.

They are also trying to enter the ship's cafeteria where investigators believe the students huddled before the ship totally sank.

Diving team leader, Hwang Dae Sik, said the team has been searching the ship's third and fourth floors where they believe most of the missing passengers gathered.

He said they are merely feeling their way around as the ship is completely dark and they have no way of determining where they are in the ship or what they are discovering.

Reports said families of the passengers have been asked to submit DNA samples while they wait for news about their loved ones.

The cities of Ansa and Jindo have been declared by South Korean President Park Geun-hye as special disaster zones in order to facilitate government assistance to the families of the victims.