JAKARTA: A passenger boat sank off an Indonesian island, killing at least one person and leaving 24 others missing, the local search and rescue agency said on Thursday (Jul 16).
An engine failure caused the boat to sink as it sailed near Selayar, a small island south of the larger Sulawesi, said the head of the local search and rescue agency, Muhammad Arif Anwar.
The crew was unable to repair the engine, prompting the skipper to call local authorities requesting evacuation, he told AFP.
The boat was already partially sunken when rescuers reached it on Thursday, according to Arif.
Forty-nine people were rescued, one woman was found dead, and “24 people are still being searched for”, said Arif.
“The challenge is the weather, with waves 2m to 2.5m high at the search site. The winds are also strong. That’s the main challenge.”
The vessel’s manifest listed 50 people on board, but further verification revealed there were in fact 74, he added.
It is common in Indonesia for the number of actual passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.
An Indonesian Navy vessel had been deployed to assist with the search, which is expected to continue into the night, Arif said.
The Nurul Salsa was carrying 74 passengers and crew, as well as copra, cattle and motorcycles, when it departed Jampea Island on Wednesday morning, authorities have said.
Passenger boats are a common form of transportation in Indonesia, an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands. Lax safety standards and problems with overcrowding frequently result in accidents.
In January, three Spanish tourists died when their boat sank off eastern Indonesia, and a 10-year-old boy was listed as officially missing after authorities ended the search.
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