Bali ferry disaster: Navy, thermal drones join search as 30 still missing
Indonesia is pulling out all stops after a ferry sank off Bali sending in three navy ships, thermal drones and choppers as the search prepares to enter its third day with 30 still missing.
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Indonesia sent in the navy on Friday with the three ships to rejoin the search again today equipped with thermal drones and helicopter support.
The search party for the 30 people still missing numbers more than 160 including soldiers and Indonesian police.
However, deputy chief of operations at Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency Ribut Eko Suyatno signalled the search could soon take a grim turn.
“We are ready to deploy divers to scour the sea if needed and if the weather is fine,” Mr Suyatno said in a statement, signalling ti could become more of a body recovery operation as hope of finding more survivors fades.
Mr Suyatno added 20 other vessels including civilian fishing boats were also assisting in the search.
The Bali Sun reports all on board the ferry, which sank just before midnight on Wednesday, were Indonesian nationals.
However, the publication also raised concerns the death toll could rise sharply as “it is not uncommon for the manifest list of ships operating in Indonesia to differ significantly from the actual number of people on board.”
Officially, the ferry was carrying 65 people, 29 of who were rescued and six who have been confirmed dead.
“The ferry tilted and immediately sank,” survivor Eka Toniansyah told reporters at a Bali hospital.
“Most of the passengers were from Indonesia. I was with my father. My father is dead.”
Rescue officials said a sixth victim – a three-year-old boy – was found dead on Thursday evening.
“All search and rescue equipment were utilised... resulting in the discovery of 29 survivors, and six (victims) who were dead,” national search and rescue agency operations official Ribut Eko Suyatno told reporters.
Nanang Sigit, the head of the Java-based Surabaya search and rescue agency, had earlier given a death toll of five with 29 missing at sea.
President Prabowo Subianto, who was on a trip to Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response, cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said, adding the cause of the accident was “bad weather”.
The search for the remaining missing victims will be suspended Thursday evening and will resume Friday, a Surabaya search and rescue officer told AFP.
Nanang said efforts to reach the doomed vessel were initially hampered by adverse weather conditions.
Waves as high as 2.5 metres with “strong winds and strong currents” had affected the rescue operation, he said, adding conditions have since improved.
A rescue team of at least 54 personnel was dispatched along with inflatable rescue boats, he said, while a bigger vessel was later sent from Surabaya city.
Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency chief Mohammad Syafii told a news conference that the agency sent a helicopter to help the effort.
Nanang said rescuers would follow currents and expand the search area if there were still people unaccounted for by the end of the day.
“For today’s search, we are still focusing on search above the water where initial victims were found,” the Surabaya search and rescue chief said.
The ferry’s manifest showed 53 passengers and 12 crew members, he said, but rescuers were still assessing if there were more people on board.
It is common in Indonesia for the actual number of passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.
It was unclear if any foreigners were on board.
The ferry crossing from Ketapang port in Java to Bali’s Gilimanuk port is one of the busiest in the country and takes around one hour.
It is often used by people crossing between the islands by car. Four of the known survivors saved themselves by using the ferry’s lifeboat and were found in the water early Thursday, the Surabaya rescue agency said.
It said the ferry was also transporting 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks.
As of 4pm AEST on Thursday, the Australian Government was not aware of any Australians on board the vessel.
“The Australian Government expresses its sincere condolences to those impacted by the ferry accident in the Bali Strait,” a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said.
“The Consulate-General in Bali is receiving regular updates. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”
Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, in part due to lax safety standards and sometimes due to bad weather.
In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person.
A ferry carrying more than 800 people ran aground in shallow waters off East Nusa Tenggara province in 2022 and remained stuck for two days before being dislodged with no one hurt.
And in 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world’s deepest lakes on Sumatra island.
– with AFP
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Originally published as Bali ferry disaster: Navy, thermal drones join search as 30 still missing
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