Fishermen Reported Missing While Fishing In Sungai Serdang Babel River

PANGKALPINANG - Pangkalpinang City SAR Office, Bangka Belitung Islands Province (Babel), deployed a joint team to search for a fisherman, Kohar (55) who was missing while looking for fish in the South Bangka Serdang River last Sunday.

"Hopefully the search for victims can find a bright spot and the victims can be found soon," said Head of the Pangkalpinang SAR Office I Made Oka Astawa, quoted by ANTARA, Monday, July 8.

He said the Pangkalpinang SAR Office received a report on the disappearance of Kohar (55), a fisherman from Serdang Hamlet, South Bangka Regency, on Sunday afternoon. Then the Pangkalpinang SAR Office dispatched a rescue team from the Toboali SAR Alert Unit and a rescue team from the Pangkalpinang SAR Office, assisted by the Simpang Rimba Police, to the location of the incident which was in the Bandung Serdang river channel.

"We will maximize our search for victims with the help of a Macic 3 thermal drone from the Pangkalpinang SAR Office, considering the location of the incident, which was dominated by trees and tall grass," he said.

He stated that the chronology of the incident of missing fishermen allegedly falling from the boat, initially the victim, known as Kohar (55) previously on July 5, 2024 at 13.00 WIB, left alone from the victim's house to look for fish in the Serdang River using his boat. Usually the victim is known to return home after a week of looking for fish.

Then on July 6, 2024 at 12.03 WIB, a colleague of the victim named Rasit, saw the victim sitting in front of the victim's hut near the Serdang River channel with a distance from the hamlet of about 9.5 kilometers.

At 17.30 WIB, the victim's boat was found by one of the residents, not far from his hut and was parked on the edge of the river channel. Because they did not feel any irregularities, the resident continued his journey to the village.

Then at 20.00 WIB a resident who passed by by by boat in front of the victim's hut saw the lights of the victim's hut which was usually always on, but when passing the lamp was turned off and not far from the victim's hut there was a boat, but the victim was not found on the boat.

Residents who were suspicious of this immediately headed to the village to report the incident to the victim's family.

The victim's child who received the information on July 7, 2024 at 15.00 WIB left for the location of the hut where the victim was at a distance of 9.5 km from the village to look for the victim. Arriving at the location, the victim's child saw the victim's boat and other victim's belongings, while the victim's cellphone was turning on the music, as well as the victim's belongings and caught fish were still on the boat. Only the rowing belonging to the victim was missing.

Then the victim's child and residents tried to search for the victim, but until the afternoon the search for Kohar had not been found.

Knowing this, the Village Head of Serdang Hamlet, Irhamdi, reported the incident to the Pangkalpinang SAR Office to ask for help in searching for victims.