Indonesian boat carrying 122 people threatened by choppy waters

Hopes are fading for the eighty people missing from a ferry that sank off Indonesia’s eastern (Soo-la-way-see) Sulawesi island over the weekend.

A ferry serving the Kolaka, Southeast Sulawesi- Siwa, South Sulawesi route has reportedly been missing since Saturday, Dec. 19 after reporting engine failure amid high waves.

The fibreglass ship was carrying 118 people, including 10 crew members. Fishermen found four survivors who told authorities that the boat sank hours after being hit by high waves.

The transport ministry has confirmed 3 people, including two children, have been found dead, while 39 others have been pulled from the water alive, some after desperately clinging to fishing buoys for hours in the huge swell until help arrived.

The boat sank 22.5 km (24 miles) off the coast of Wajo district in South Sulawesi, officials said. The passengers included 14 children.

“The team from our headquarters… all that we have, we are deploying there, but we’re facing high waves”, Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia’s national search-and-rescue agency, said. As much as 122 people have been believed to have been on the vessel, the nation’s rescue & search agency stated Sun.

“Other passengers are still out in the sea wearing life jackets and we’re evacuating”, he added.

A rescue official said yesterday that rescuers were scouring offshore north of Kolaka in case water currents had taken the victims there.

Indonesia’s waterways serve as a widespread form of transportation in some areas of the country, where accidents resulting from overcrowded boats and lax safety standards are common.

It is unclear how many passengers and crew were onboard.