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Indonesian Ferry Disaster: 116 Rescued
Jakarta,
Dec 31 (DPA) More survivors were saved as rescuers fought bad
weather Sunday to search for an estimated 480 people still missing
and feared drowned after a passenger ferry sank in rough seas off
Indonesia's Java island.
By mid-afternoon Sunday, a total of 116 survivors had been rescued
from the Java seas, said Waluyo, a port official in Central Java
capital of Semarang.
The ferry, NV Senopati Nusantara, sank in a storm late Friday with
more than 570 people on board. The ship was en route from Kalimantan
province on the Indonesian part of Borneo to Semarang, capital of
Central Java.
Indonesian authorities said the captain had radioed to port
authorities that the ship was in trouble during a storm that had
severely damaged the ferry.
"Our team resumed the search this morning," said Edy, an official at
Semarang's provincial search and rescue agency, adding that they
faced waves as high as four metres.
Waluyo, an official at Semarang's port, said he received reports
from rescue workers that two Indonesian Navy vessels had picked up
24 people, while 11 other survivors were picked by a Vietnamese-flag
ship passing in the area.
A number of survivors were rescued by fishing boats after floating
for more than 24 hours.
"I was floating for around one day and a night before I was rescued
by fishermen this morning," Syaifullah, one of those 18 survivors,
told a private radio.
Passengers fought over life jackets as the boat capsized, while
others survived the rough seas by clinging to wooden planks,
survivors said.
Six naval ships, several other vessels and at least two aircraft and
a helicopter have been involved in the search for at least 468
people missing and feared drowned after more than 48 hours floating
on rough seas, Waluyo said.
The ferry was carrying 545 passengers and 20 crewmembers.
"Weather today is still not much different from yesterday. Poor
visibility and stormy seas hampered rescue efforts," said Waluyo.
Indonesian authorities initially put the number of people on board
the ferry ranging from 550 to 800 for the scheduled 19-hour voyage
from the central Kalimantan port of Kumai to Semarang harbor.
The ship, built in Japan in 1990, had a capacity of 850 passengers.
"We will deploy all ships including navy vessels and marine police
boats as well as ships belonging to the private and state-owned
companies for the search-and-rescue operation," Communication
Minister Hatta Radjasa told reporters.
According to Radjasa, the ferry was seaworthy and categorized as
still new, and he blamed bad weather as the cause of the accident.
In July 2003, a ferry packed with around 500 people fleeing
sectarian violence in the eastern Indonesian province of Maluku sank
in bad weather in the Maluku Sea, leaving hundreds dead or missing.
Indonesia is a vast archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands,
and sea links are a main transportation link in the country.
Passenger ferries and ships have poor safety records. There have
been many shipwrecks in Indonesian waters.
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