RI navy plane spots victims

RI navy plane spots victims

JAKARTA (Reuters): The Indonesian navy has discovered 19 bodies believed to be those of passengers on a ship which sank in the South China Sea last weekend, the Antara news agency said on Saturday.

The bodies were spotted by a navy plane on Friday about 60 nautical miles from Pontianak, the provincial capital of West Kalimantan on the Indonesian side of Borneo island.

Port officials say around 325 people were aboard the KLM Arta Rimba, which sank last Saturday about 70 nautical miles northwest of Pontianak on the way from Kuala Sambas on the west coast of Kalimantan to Riau province in Sumatra.

Twenty people, including the captain, were rescued. The ship was licensed to carry timber, not passengers.

Many of the passengers had been tempted on board by offers of cheap passage to Riau where they were told they could find jobs.

About 340 people died in February 1996 when a ferry sank in heavy seas off the coast of northern Sumatra.