As the water level of the Han River has dropped, it has been confirmed that there were 15 instances in which the Hangang Bus touched the riverbed or debris during operations.

Kim Seon-jik, CEO of Hangang Bus Co., Ltd., held a briefing at City Hall on the 17th and said, “As the depth has decreased, we received a total of 15 reports from captains that something was touching the bottom of the Hangang Bus,” and added, “It may have contacted the riverbed due to shallow water, or it may have touched foreign objects such as logs; we will investigate and make the findings public.”

According to Hangang Bus Co., Ltd., 13 of the 15 reports were concentrated after November 7. Kim said, “We had not yet gone through November, the low-water season when the depth is the shallowest all year, so we did not anticipate it would get this shallow,” and added, “It is not possible at this time to determine whether future drought will prevent the vessels from operating.”

Separately from this incident, Hangang Bus Co., Ltd., together with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, began bypassing without stopping from the 16th to the 18th near Ttukseom Pier, where the depth is low, and commenced work to remove debris and floating materials. At around 7:50 p.m. on the 11th, while a Hangang Bus was traveling from Jamsil to Ttukseom, a floating rope became entangled in the propeller, and at around 12:43 p.m. on the 15th, a vessel traveling from Ttukseom to Jamsil also contacted debris near Ttukseom Pier.

Then, at around 8:24 p.m. on the 15th, a Hangang Bus deviated from the normal route near Jamsil Pier, entered a shallow-water section, and became stuck on the riverbed. The area near Jamsil Pier is shallow and contains concrete structures such as protective conduits for gas pipelines, so caution is required during navigation.

Kim said, “The captain operating on the 15th stated that he could not see the starboard channel light in the shallow section, so he berthed while looking at the port channel light, and that the bottom of the vessel struck the riverbed at low tide,” adding, “At this point, it is difficult to make a precise judgment on whether it was ‘human error.’”

Although the immediate cause of the Hangang Bus accident near Jamsil Pier was a route deviation, given the continued reports of the hull touching the riverbed or debris due to shallow water, the possibility of similar incidents recurring in the future cannot be ruled out.

When determining the channel depth around Jamsil Pier, the city judged that it had secured a depth of at least 2.8 meters by adding a 1-meter safety margin to the 1.8-meter standard, but it did not foresee this accident.

Kim said, “We will deploy divers upstream of Hannam Bridge to survey and remove floating and foreign objects that impede navigation in order to ensure operational safety,” and added, “The stricken vessel is scheduled to be refloated around 7 p.m. on the 19th at high tide, after which it will be recovered either by moving under its own power or with a tug.”

For the time being, the Hangang Bus will operate only partially on the Magok∼Mangwon∼Yeouido section south of Hannam Bridge. Service across the entire route will resume once safety checks on the channel upstream of Hannam Bridge are completed. However, regarding when operations will resume, it said, “We will do so as soon as possible,” while avoiding a specific timeline.

Meanwhile, at around 9 a.m. on the 17th, Hangang Bus No. 101, which was scheduled to depart from Magok Pier, was unable to depart due to a battery issue, among others. Hangang Bus deployed a replacement vessel, transferred passengers, and continued operations.