Rescue search yields five more bodies from ferry disaster

JAKARTA (JP): The Search and Rescue team has found the bodies of five more victims from the Kaltimas II ferry, which sank with over 70 passengers off the coast of Bali on Tuesday night, bringing the death toll to 15.

The team, comprising 200 rescuers from the Indonesian Navy, volunteers and local fishermen, has found 40 of the passengers, including the total of 15 deceased victims, in the coastal areas of Pengambengan, Muncar and Banyuwangi, in East Java, as well as in Pebuahan, Bali.

It has also managed to identify six of the bodies, including that of the captain of the boat, Sunaryo, 50.

The team, using seven ships, will continue the search until next week, a spokesman said.

Official data indicate the ferry, which went down in storm- stricken seas between Ketapang in East Java and Gilimanuk, 125 kilometers west of Denpasar, carried 62 passengers.

Made Sudhiarta, the Gilimanuk port spokesman, said the actual figure could have been 80 because of the possibility of illegal passengers being on the boat.

Meanwhile, the owner of the ferry, Sartono, said the boat was not overloaded when it sank. At its maximum capacity it could carry 12 big trucks, the Antara news agency reported him as saying.

The vessel was only carrying six trucks, two containers and a Jawa Baru fleet bus with 32 passengers at that time.

Sartono issued the statement in response to allegations that the accident occurred because of negligence. The head of Bali's transportation office earlier said the ferry was months overdue for routine maintenance.

Sartono said the 275 gross-ton vessel of the Landing Craft Tank type was powered by two (165 PK) engines. He emphasized that the ship went down in a storm.

The vessel made a distress call to the port at 9:30 p.m. local time. The crew said the ferry was swamped with water from high waves.

Officers immediately launched a rescue operation but were hampered by the rough seas.

Head of the rescue team, Lt. Col. Rasidi, said the boat appeared to have drifted five miles into the southern area of Gilimanuk before it sank.

"It might have drifted even further, up to 10 miles away from the place it sank," he said, adding that the missing passengers might have been carried out into the Indian Ocean.

The suspected site of the shipwrecked boat is 40 to 60 meters under the surface of the sea in an area where the waves are around four meters high, Rasidi said.

The loss of the ferry has caused a back-up of vehicles at both the Ketapang and Gilimanuk ports.

Antara reported yesterday that up to two-kilometer long lines of trucks were jamming the ports because priority was being given to buses and privately owned cars.

Of the 14 ferries serving the crowded route, only eight are now running, spokesman Sudhiarta said.

He said three of the vessels have joined the Navy in the search for survivors, while the others are being repaired.

Ferries are the cheapest and most popular form of transportation linking Java and Bali, as well as many other islands. (prs)