Indonesia has widened the search for hundreds of people missing after a ferry sank, as survivors were found hundreds of kilometres from where the ship went down, a navy officer said on Thursday.
A seven-year-old boy was among 13 people rescued on Wednesday clinging to an oil rig in the Java sea. Television pictures showed 12 of them being brought ashore at Surabaya, a port in East Java. The boy appeared in good health considering his ordeal.
The Senopati Nusantara (Archipelago Commander) carrying about 600 people was en route from Kumai on Borneo island to Semarang in Central Java when it sank in a storm on Friday night.
”The 13 people were found stranded on the American Conoco Phillips oil rig, north of Madura and south of Bawean island. Twelve of them had arrived in Surabaya yesterday [Wednesday],” Central Java navy commander Colonel Yan Simamora said.
Bawean island is 350km north-east of the Javanese port of Semarang, the original destination of the ill-fated ferry.
MetroTV said the 13th survivor was the captain of the ferry, Wiratno, who was transferred to another ship for medical attention to a broken arm.
Fifteen more survivors were found on Wednesday near Madura island off East Java, more than 300km east of where the ferry is thought to have sunk, Simamora said.
Strong winds and waves have carried survivors and life rafts east along the seas north of Java and severely hampered search-and-rescue efforts.
”The last victims, some 15 who were found near Madura island, will be brought to Surabaya hospital by navy ship KRI Teluk Banten today [Thursday],” the colonel said. ”We are still continuing our search efforts to the north of Madura and the area to the east.”
”It is far from where the ship originally sank but our last survivors were found by navy ships and aircraft in the waters off Madura and Bawean island,” Simamora said.
A total of 220 people, 178 males and 42 females, have been rescued so far, with seven bodies recovered, Semarang port official Bagasto said.
Survivors have been spotted on life rafts but bad weather and huge waves have hampered efforts to pluck them to safety after days on the open sea.
The exact location of the wreck is not known. Central Java provincial government official Salman Kadarsiman said the search could only start when conditions improve.
”The search for the ferry wreck will be undertaken by the navy who will use sonar to detect it underwater. But we can only get started on that when the seas are calm. Otherwise we cannot detect it,” Kadarsiman told ElShinta radio.
Meteorologists have warned that the bad weather and rough seas would continue for the next few days, with waves of 2m to 4m high and strong winds.
Preliminary investigations show bad weather was to blame for the accident, transport safety officials have said.
Passengers have described panic and confusion on the ship as it sank in minutes late at night in a storm off Java. The vessel was carrying 542 passengers and 57 crew. It was licensed to carry 850.
Ferries are a crucial link between the archipelago nation’s 17 000 islands and frequently carry more people than officially acknowledged. — Sapa-AFP