Passenger Ferry Sinks in Indonesia... 6 Dead, 129 Missing

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In Indonesia, a passenger ferry carrying around 240 people has sunk due to severe weather. So far, 6 people have died and 129 remain missing.

Reporter Park Chan-beom has the details.

[Reporter]

A passenger ferry is seen floating upside down in the middle of the sea.

At around 4:10 a.m. yesterday, local time (the 13th), a report was received that a passenger ferry was sinking in the Java Sea near Banjarmasin, Indonesia.

It was determined that a total of 243 people were on board at the time of the accident, including 213 passengers and 30 crew members.

The accident has resulted in 6 deaths so far, with 129 people still missing.

The remaining 108 passengers have been rescued.

[Faisal / Survivor: When the ship started to sink, people panicked and rushed toward the deck. Then the ship began to capsize. There were about 14 of us together at that time.]

The accident ferry had departed from Surabaya in East Java, Indonesia's second-largest city, at around 10:10 a.m. the day before yesterday, heading toward Banjarmasin, before losing contact after communicating that weather conditions were poor.

The ferry's last known location was approximately 148 kilometers away from the Basirih Pier in Banjarmasin, and it was understood that waves higher than 2 meters were battering the accident waters at the time.

Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, along with the navy, has deployed 12 vessels to the accident site to search for the missing.

[Ahmad Saudi / Survivor: The women in the economy class cabin probably didn't make it. The ship tilted sharply, and there were no alarms or announcements at the time.]

In Indonesia, which consists of 17,000 islands, ships are widely used as a primary means of transportation, making accidents correspondingly frequent.

In 2018, a passenger ferry carrying about 200 people sank near a volcanic crater lake in North Sumatra province, resulting in 167 deaths.

(Video Editing: Park Chun-bae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.