Heartbreaking wish of little girl trapped under capsized Bali boat with Australian victim

Warning: Graphic content

A passenger on the snorkelling boat that capsized off Bali, killing Australian tourist Anna Blight, has recounted horrifying details of the tragedy, including how her seven-year-old daughter became trapped underneath the overturned vessel.

The Estonian woman, who asked not to be named for privacy reasons, also told how the boat was speeding through rough waves just before it flipped near the popular island of Nusa Penida and alleged that the operators had refused to hand out safety equipment.

She said that after requesting a life jacket five times, she eventually found one herself – slipping it onto her daughter minutes before the incident.

The girl had just celebrated her birthday in Bali and hoped to see sea turtles on Friday’s day trip from Sanur, on Bali, to Manta Point.

Instead, she became trapped under the boat with Blight and several members of the Indonesian crew. “She saw her dying,” the mother said.

The girl – who is in hospital with pneumonia and other injuries that caused her to vomit blood – told her parents: “I keep seeing the lady that died. I should have been able to save her. I should have been able to save the lady that died.”

The Estonian mother caught up in the Bali snorkeling boat tragedy. She declined to be named or photographed so soon after her trauma, but allowed this masthead to use this Facebook picture.. Credit: Facebook

Investigators believe the boat’s engine was knocked out by a floating log, making it difficult for the captain to control the vessel in rough seas.

However, a passenger’s video that Dutch media published appears to show the boat at speed when a large wave hit it, seemingly washing the person with the camera overboard. Seconds earlier, the passengers can be heard saying, “I’m getting nervous” and “I’ve never seen this in my life”.

Blight, 39, a Melbourne-based senior member of insolvency firm Cor Cordis, was one of four Australians on the boat, according to the passenger manifest.

Cintamani “Tam” Warrington and Gabe Hijniakoff remain in a Bali hospital with serious burns from fuel or other chemicals. Lisa Bell – who local police believe is Blight’s cousin and has already returned to Australia – was treated for bruising. The manifest also lists two Americans, two Dutch people and three Estonians.

Anna Blight was killed when a snorkelling boat capsized off Bali.Credit: Cor Cordis

The Estonian mother said she believed the boat got into trouble about 10 or 15 minutes into the journey from Sanur.

“[The captain was] driving extremely fast and people were screaming like, “Stop this, stop this, please don’t drive so fast’,” she said. Instead, the crew played music and showed them pictures of fish, she said.

When the boat capsized, the passengers were thrown violently around the vessel and into the water. There was a lot of blood, and she worried about sharks. The day before, a diving website published news of a rare great white shark sighting at Nusa Penida.

She said she found a floating life jacket and put it on her husband because he was weak with injuries.

Police have released this image of the capsized boat in the waters off Nusa Penida.Credit: AP

“He just laid still and floated in the lifejacket. He floated away from the boat. At one point, he floated so far away I couldn’t see him and I thought he was dead,” she said.

“I couldn’t find my daughter, I didn’t know where she was. It turned out she was trapped inside the body of the flipped boat.”

After about 20 minutes of her believing her daughter was also dead, the girl emerged – a long way from the boat. The mother swam to her – she was blue from the cold – and wrapped her in her arms.

The girl would later describe hearing an Estonian language voice telling her to take a deep breath and swim out from under the boat.

“It was definitely not me – I didn’t know where she was. It was definitely not my husband. But a voice told her what to do,” the mother said.

Survivors were rescued by a passing boat, but not all of them could fit. The Estonians waited in the water for about an hour before being retrieved by a different vessel, she said.

By this time, her husband, a doctor, had regained consciousness and paddled back to his family.

They were taken to a beach, where a construction crew building a half-finished elevator up the cliff fired it up and took them to the top.

“If they didn’t do this I don’t know how we were going to be rescued,” she said. “People were so kind. A local lady drove through a big storm with her scooter to bring my daughter and me some dry clothes.”

The boat capsized at 8.32am on Friday, Bali time. It was late afternoon by the time they got back to Bali and to a hospital, where the doctors and nurses were excellent, she said.

The mother, heartbroken at her daughter’s unwarranted guilt at not saving Blight, said she would seek trauma counselling for her as soon as they returned to Estonia.

She said that none of the surviving passengers were OK. “We’re all injured. After three days, I can still taste the chemicals.”

Gabriel Hijniakoff (Gabe), and Cintamani Warrington (Tam) are stuck in Bali with serious burns.Credit: GoFundMe

Wayan Murah from the Nusa Penida police said the boat captain, who had one year of experience, said the weather was good at Sanur and that was why he was driving fast.

“We have questioned the boat captain and two crew,” Wayan said.

“We are having trouble trying to interview the passengers. The cousin of Anna Maree [Blight], Lisa Bell, left the country so soon, before we had a chance to interview her.

“We have asked the Australian consulate to assist with contacting her family.“

Murah said police would “cross-check” the allegations of speeding and failure to provide life jackets.

An Indonesian fisherman who reviewed the Dutch video of the incident told this masthead that the waves were four to five metres high – enough to trigger a local weather warning. He said even someone with his experience would only go to sea when the waves were one to two metres.

The boat company and tour company, which are paying the survivor’s hospital costs, have not commented.

The Estonian woman said her government had not helped. The country’s foreign ministry has been contacted for comment.

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