Family mourns after fatal ship collision

Family mourns after fatal ship collision

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Grief gripped Achmad Zainuddin and his wife Henny Sugiarti on
Saturday as they mourned the death of their eldest daughter,
Fitri Rahmawati, 6, and Henny's mother, Sundari, 50, who died in
a collision between two ships near Tanjung Perak port, Surabaya,
on Friday.

Henny's father, Suprapto, was injured in the incident and is
being treated at the Tanjung Perak Port Hospital in Surabaya.

The three members of the family were on board the passenger
vessel KM Mandiri Nusantara when a cargo ship, the Uni Glory,
rammed into it off the Gresik coast in East Java on Friday
morning. Three people were killed, 11 were injured and three
others are missing as a result of the accident.

The third passenger who died was Iwan Gunawan.

Neighbors gathered at the couple's home in Bojonegoro to offer
their condolences to the bereaved family. Their presence,
however, failed to comfort Henny, who was deeply distressed and
appeared to be in shock.

According to Achmad, he had a premonition that something bad
was about to happen.

"On the night before the accident, Henny said she thought she
smelled jasmine at home, but she did not know where the scent was
coming from," said Achmad.

It is a tradition among the Javanese to scatter jasmine petals
on the graves of the deceased in order to produce a sweet
fragrance in the cemetery. It is also believed that when someone
unexpectedly catches the scent of jasmine, in their workplace,
for example, a family member or close relative is going to die,
or the ghost of a deceased person is going to pay them a visit.

"She also asked me to see if I could smell it, but I said no,"
Achmad was quoted as saying by Antara.

At the time, Achmad tried to comfort his wife, saying the omen
meant nothing. But still, he said that both he and his wife were
unable to sleep for the rest of the night. Moreover, they had to
pick up their daughter and parents at Tanjung Perak port the
following morning.

The omen came true only hours later, when Achmad found out at
the port that two of his family members were dead.

Sundari, Suprapto and Fitri were returning home to Bojonegoro
after spending two years in Kalimantan.

In a separate development, Director General of Sea
Transportation Tjuk Sukardiman visited the victims of the
collision at the Tanjung Perak Port Hospital.

Tjuk said that the government had yet to determine the cause
of the collision.