Hundreds missing in ferry disaster

Rough seas hamper search efforts for passengers of the sunk Indonesian ship.

Indonesian ferry
ferry Senopati Nusantara sank overnight off the coast of Java [AFP]

‘Maximum efforts’

 

Rough seas with waves five to six metres high were hampering search-and-rescue efforts with only larger navy ships able to go out, as two other ships were forced to turn back.

 

“The search will continue tonight with two naval ships,”  Hatta Radjasa, the transport minister, told MetroTV after arriving in Semarang, where  relatives searched lists of survivors.

  

Radjasa said “we are using our maximum efforts to rescue as many  people as possible”.

  

He later told ElShinta radio that the ship was built in 1990 and serviced earlier this year, “so it should not have had any problems”.

  

“The huge waves had caused the ship to sink,” he said.

 

The Senopati Nusantara (Archipelago Commander) had been due in Semarang late on Friday after what should have been a 19-hour voyage.

 

Navy ships and helicopters earlier found some of the survivors stranded on the nearby island of Bawean, but could not find any trace of the ship, ElShinta radio said.

 

An airforce C-235 patrol aircraft was also searching for survivors.

 

The ferry left Kumai in Central Kalimantan province on Borneo island en route to Semarang in Central Java 420km away, and sank near Mandalika island off the Java coast. It was not known exactly where it went down.

Source: News Agencies