SAR Team Evacuates 9 Victims of Ship Aground Due to Broken Coral in Kotabaru Waters

BANJARMASIN - Basarnas Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan (Kalsel) evacuated nine crew members (ABK) victims of the shipwreck accident KM Arif Wijaya Kusuma in the waters east of Kotabaru Regency.

Head of Basarnas Banjarmasin Al Amrad said that four SAR teams had succeeded in evacuating nine victims on a ship that ran aground on a reef.

"The condition of the ship broke, but thank God, all the victims survived," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, February 19.

Al Amrad said information about the ship being abandoned was received from the Kotabaru Police Water Police Unit on Sunday (18/2) at around 23.17 p.m. Central Indonesian Time (WITA). Meanwhile, the ship ran aground on the same day at around 13.00 p.m. WITA.

"All the victims have been evacuated, the exact point of the incident was in Tanjung Mangkok (Kotabaru Regency)," he said.

He said that the incident started when the ship was about to sail from Tanjung Mangkok to Rembang, while sailing, the ship suddenly ran aground on a reef located to the east of Kotabaru Regency.

After 11 hours later, said Al Amrad, the Kotabaru SAR Post team learned of the incident and immediately dispatched four personnel.

It didn't take long for the SAR team to find nine victims on the ship which was damaged due to running aground on a rock. The evacuation process took around two hours to reach land at the Kotabaru Police Water Police Unit Post, at exactly 01.50 a.m. WITA.

Al Amrad said that during the process of evacuating victims of a ship that ran aground, his party was assisted by five personnel from the Kotabaru Police Water Police Unit and the local community.

"Thank God, there were no problems during the evacuation process, everything went smoothly thanks to the cooperation of all parties," he said.