Over 70 feared dead as ship sinks

Over 70 feared dead as ship sinks

Agencies, Jakarta

Five passengers of an ill-fated ferry were confirmed dead and some 70 others were feared drowned off Ambon, officials said on Monday as rescue workers and volunteers continued searching for the dead and missing.

The ship, The Masohi Star, which was packed with passengers homeward bound for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan, sank just 500 meters off the Ambon coast only 15 minutes after leaving Slamet Riyadi port late on Sunday. The vessel was headed for the town of Masohi on Seram Island.

A total of 117 passengers survived the disaster.

An adviser to the Maluku provincial administration, Lt. Col. Marten Luther Djari, said five bodies had been recovered so far, while many dozens were reported missing and presumed dead.

Police were questioning the skipper of the boat, which was reportedly returning to port to reduce its load when it went down, Marten said as quoted by AFP.

So far, no one has been declared a suspect in the incident.

According to Marten, the Masohi Star had a capacity of 180 passengers. Although 104 people had tickets and boarded the vessel, a preliminary count indicated there were about 200 people aboard, Marten said.

Officials were still trying to confirm the actual number of passengers.

Outgoing Maluku Governor Saleh Latuconsina visited injured survivors being treated in the Latumeten Military Hospital and Al-Fattah Hospital in the early hours of Monday.

Saleh comforted the victims, who were mostly women and children. He instructed the local Navy unit and residents living near the coast to do their best to search for survivors.

"The ongoing search and evacuation are a must because there are probably (bodies of) passengers that can be recovered," Saleh told reporters during the impromptu visit.

Antara reported that a flotilla of search vessels, comprising three Indonesian Navy ships, and dozens of motorboats and speedboats belonging to local fishermen, had set sail to locate the dead and missing.

Shortly after the incident on Sunday, 117 survivors were rescued by local fishermen. Witnesses said dozens of others swam ashore.

Navy divers were also deployed to search for bodies in the Dalam Gulf.

The commander of the Ambon Naval Fleet, Col. Buyung Lalana, who led the search operation, said the search teams had difficulty in locating and rescuing the survivors due to a lack of equipment.

"The equipment that our divers has only allows them to go as deep as 40 meters, while the water where the ship sank is 100 meters deep," he said as quoted by Antara.

Buyung expressed the hope that the port administrator could call out larger fishing vessels to help with the search.

"If their anchors can make contact with the sunken wooden vessel, the passengers who are trapped inside could float to the surface."

Meanwhile, the Ambon branch of state-owned insurance company Jasa Raharja said they would pay compensation to the victims as the owner of the ship, PT Sumber Rejeki, was insured up to Nov. 8.

Shipping accidents are common in Indonesia, a vast archipelago where much traveling is done by boat. Safety regulations are often poorly enforced and ship owners frequently claim they are unable to afford maintenance and repairs.