Rescuers in Indonesia find mother-and-son survivors from sunken passenger boat
-
Click here to listen to this article - Share via
- Rescuers in eastern Indonesia have found a mother and adult son alive on a remote island days after their passenger boat sank, with 18 people still missing.
- More than 200 searchers, joined by troops, police, fishermen and residents, battle high waves and strong winds as they comb the waters off South Sulawesi.
- The KM Nurul Salsa was carrying 78 people when its engine failed and it sank. At least one person has been confirmed dead.
PALU, Indonesia — Rescuers in eastern Indonesia on Sunday found two more survivors, a mother and son, from a passenger boat that sank last week and were searching for 18 others still missing.
Fishermen found the 46-year-old woman and her 24-year-old son stranded on Balaloho Island, one of the small inhabited isles among the Selayar Islands, officials said.
More than 200 rescuers aboard vessels were joined over the weekend by Indonesian troops, police, fishermen and residents, said Andi Sultan, head of emergency response in Makassar, a port city on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.
“Rescue teams also faced extremely harsh weather conditions, including waves as high as [6½ to 10 feet] and strong winds,” Sultan said.
A search-and-rescue team retrieved five survivors Saturday evening, including a 7-year-old girl, who were clinging to a fish trap.
At least one person has been confirmed dead.
The KM Nurul Salsa, which was carrying 78 passengers and crew members, experienced engine failure and sank Wednesday about 43 nautical miles from the port in the Selayar Islands, in South Sulawesi province.
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.
Taufan and Tarigan write for the Associated Press. AP writer Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
Kim, an attorney and former San Francisco supervisor, is running against State Sen. Benjamin Allen for the role of running California’s long-beleaguered Department of Insurance. In this episode she talks to Rebuilding L.A. host Kate Cagle about why she should get the job.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
Modern LA earned its first smoggy nickname 450 years ago, as the “bay of smokes.” At the La Brea tar pits, we take a short walk through a long history with curator Regan Dunn, who explains how and why the first Angelenos would have set fires that filled the broad bowl of LA and foretold the curse of smog.
