Survivors from an Indonesian ferry that sank in stormy weather recalled desperate days adrift at sea during interviews on Friday as hopes faded of rescuing about 400 people still missing a week after the ship went down.
Ahmad Rifai said he and 14 other survivors on a life raft spotted land three times, but high waves prevented them from paddling their vessel ashore. They survived on rain water during five days at sea before washing up on an island hundreds of kilometres from where the ferry sank.
”I never believed I would still be alive,” said the 35-year-old plantation worker as he recovered in a hospital in the coastal city of Surabaya. ”We were frequently almost pummelled to death by the heavy waves.”
Rifai was rescued on Wednesday. Since then no survivors have been found and search planes have only spotted life vests and empty boats, leading one rescue official to say he doubted that more people would be found alive in the tropical waters.
About 220 people, including the captain, of the more than 600 people on board survived the accident.
”Looking at the weather I feel it will be difficult to find more survivors,” said Mohammad Hernanto, the Surabaya search-and-rescue chief. ”Especially since they have been thrown around in the sea without food and water.”
Indonesia has been wracked in recent weeks by seasonal storms that have triggered deadly landslides, flooding and at least six maritime accidents in different parts of the sprawling archipelago.
A jetliner with 102 people on board disappeared in heavy winds and is still missing.
The Senopati Nusantara ferry was sailing from Borneo Island to the country’s main island of Java when it sank just before midnight on Friday after being pounded by waves of up to 4m high for several hours.
A government investigator said on Thursday she suspected the waves washed into the car deck and became trapped there, causing the vessel to capsize. Similar accidents have occurred on other ”roll-on, roll-off” ferries around the world, leading to calls for a change in their design.
Rifai said he saw two adults and two children hugging each other on the deck of the sinking ferry before he jumped into the sea. ”It seemed they wanted to die together,” he said. ”They kept repeating, ‘God is great!’ Their bodies sunk quickly.” — Sapa-AP