Indonesia ends search for last missing passenger from tourist boat sinking near Labuan Bajo, as police probe possible crew negligence
MAUMERE: Indonesian authorities ended the search on Friday for the final passenger missing from a tourist boat that sank in rough seas two weeks ago, officials said.
Rescuers found the sunken vessel this week and recovered a body, identified as a Spanish boy whose family was on board when the boat sank in eastern Indonesia on December 26.
A 10-year-old boy from the same family was the last missing person from the sinking in the Padar Island Strait, near the popular tourist destination of Labuan Bajo.
Fathur Rahman, head of the local search and rescue agency, told reporters that the operation “is closed, but we will continue monitoring” for “one victim who has not yet been found”.
He said changes in sea currents had complicated the search, which was extended several times.
“The victim’s family has expressed that they are very grateful” for the rescuers’ “all-out effort”, Fathur added.
The family’s mother and a girl were among seven people rescued.
The search had already recovered the bodies of the father, 44-year-old football coach Fernando Martin Carreras, and one of the couple’s daughters.
The body of one of their missing sons was found along with the boat on Tuesday.
Rescuers scattered flower petals in the Padar Island Strait as the search drew to a close.
It was done “as a final tribute” and “homage to the remains that have yet to be found, so they may be received by God”, Samuel Halundaka, acting head of the local disaster agency, said in a statement.
Local police said in a statement late on Thursday that they were investigating the tourist boat’s captain and a crew member for possible negligence resulting in death.
They face up to five years in prison if convicted.
“Investigators believe there was an element of negligence in the operation of the ship,” said East Nusa Tenggara police spokesman Henry Novika Chandra.
Maritime mishaps occur regularly in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, often due to lax safety standards or bad weather.
