The Jakarta Post, January 09, 2007
Survivors rescued nine days after ferry sinking
Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar
A cargo ship has rescued 15 passengers from the ill-fated Senopati Nusantara ferry in
waters of Sekala Island, but one of them died on the way to Makassar, the ship's
navigator said.
Eko Supriantono of the Mandiri 6 said the 14 people rescued had spent nine days
drifting in a life raft.
"They were picked up from a life raft at around 9:05 p.m. last night," Eko told The
Jakarta Post.
All the passengers were alive when rescued, but one who was in critical condition
died a few hours later on the way to the port, he said.
The dead victim was identified as Agus D.H., 18, a resident of Sukoharjo, Central
Java.
Hundreds of people crowded the harbor quay in Makassar to greet the survivors. A
massive search is also underway around Sulawesi for a missing aircraft with 102
people on board.
Medical staff boarded the ship to tend to the survivors, who were carried on stretchers
to a waiting fleet of ambulances and whisked to hospital.
The survivors looked weak after their ordeal but all of them were conscious and a few
even sat up in their ambulances. The corpse was brought out last and taken away in a
hearse.
Taryadi, one of the evacuated survivors, said the 14 managed to survive because they
had an adequate supply of biscuits.
"The supply was able to support life on board for three more days," he said.
Passengers ate three times a day but drank collected rainwater.
Taryadi said whenever the group saw an island they tried to sail there but were
stopped by bad weather and their diminished strength.
The Senopati Nusantara carrying more than 600 people, was en route from Kumai in
Kalimantan to Semarang in Central Java when it sank in a storm on Dec. 29.
Several life rafts with dozens of people on board were spotted two days after the ferry
sank but rough seas prevented their rescue. Food and drinks attached to tires were
dropped to them by helicopter.
Meanwhile, 10 bodies, believed to be those of ferry victims, were also found in the
vicinity of Kangean, Eastern Fleet Navy spokesman Lt. Col. Toni Syaiful told AFP.
Kangean Island is 160 kilometers north of Bali and some 400 kilometers east of the
estimated location where the ferry sank.
"Some of the 10 bodies had already been buried by local residents but will be
exhumed so that all bodies can be taken to Surabaya for identification," he said.
A Navy ship had been dispatched to collect them and was due back in Surabaya late
Monday or early Tuesday.
Some 250 survivors have been rescued so far, plucked from the seas, off life rafts and
from oil rigs and islands in the Java Sea, AFP reported.
Another group of 15 people was rescued on Friday, when the KRI Layang picked up
15 people from the Senopati -- and 14 survivors from another shipwreck.
The search for the hundreds still missing has been extended to waters off the resort
island of Bali as currents have carried survivors hundreds of kilometers east of where
the ship sank.
Search and rescue efforts have been hampered by rough seas, with smaller vessels
warned against going to sea.
The exact location of the Senopati's wreck is unknown. Officials said the Navy would
not be able to start the search using sonar until conditions improved.
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