Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Scores still lost in ferry disaster

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 31, 2006

SEMARANG, Indonesia - Navy ships scoured the rough Java Sea today in search of survivors from a ferry that sank in a storm off central Indonesia, leaving more than 500 people missing, officials said.

More than a day after the accident, 109 survivors had been rescued, Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa told reporters in Semarang late Saturday. The ferry is thought to have had 638 passengers, Radjasa said. No bodies had been recovered, but some survivors reported seeing passengers slip beneath the waves.

The ferry, Senopati Nusantara, had been on a 48-hour trip to Java from Borneo island when 15-foot waves crashed over the deck, said Slamet Bustam, an official at Semarang port, the ferry's destination.

Witnesses reported seeing lifeboats with more survivors, and most people had donned life jackets. Indonesia's tropical waters are between 72 Fahrenheit and 84 Fahrenheit and people have been known to survive days at sea.

Survivors said the boat - pounded by heavy waves for more than 10 hours - capsized late Friday night.

"It suddenly veered to one side, and the TV and fridges fell over," survivor Irfan Setiawan said on Metro TV.

He said a piece of debris hit him and he sank with the ship, but fought his way to the surface and climbed into a lifeboat. Others clung to pieces of wood or swam to nearby islands.

Another survivor, Budi Susilo, said he saw three people drown after losing their grip on an overturned raft.

Officials said the car ferry, built in Japan in 1990, had a capacity of 850 passengers and had been in good condition. They said bad weather likely caused the accident.

Ferries are a main mode of transportation in Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands with 220 million people. Overcrowding and poorly enforced safety standards mean accidents are common.

[Last modified December 31, 2006, 00:40:12]