SAR Team Looking for Eight ABK Missing in Tanggamus Waters, Lampung

JAKARTA - The joint Search And Rescue (SAR) team is focusing on the search for eight crew members (ABK) of the KM Maulana 30 who were declared missing after the ship caught fire in the waters south of Belimbing, Tanggamus Regency, Lampung Province on Saturday (20/12).

Head of the Lampung SAR Office, Deden Ridwansah, said on Sunday, the second day of the search process for the eight crew members of the Maulana 30 who were lost in the waters of Tanggamus had not yielded any results.

"The search results for the second day until this afternoon are still nil. We hope that the prayers and blessings from all the people that we can immediately find the eight ABK and evacuate in a safe condition," he said.

According to him, the search was carried out by referring to a map from the Basarnas Command Center which predicted the direction of the victim's movement according to the sea current.

"On this second day, the search area reached a radius of 26.26 Nm or about 42.2 kilometers. To optimize the search, the area is divided into two sectors, namely SRU 1 using KN SAR 224 Basudewa and SRU 2 using KM Maulana VII, with a structured sea search pattern," he said.

He also emphasized that the joint team had conducted a search by combing a number of points that were estimated to be the area where the victims were carried away by the sea.

"In addition to sea searches, the joint SAR element also conducted searches in coastal areas, including searches along the Tambling coast and the waters around the location of the incident using Tambling Wildlife Nature Conservation's fiber shark boat," he said.

Based on information, KM Maulana 30 sailed from Jakarta on Tuesday (16/12) carrying 33 crew members to fish around the Indian Ocean waters.

Upon arrival at the location, which was one of his destinations, the ship caught fire and required all passengers to jump into the sea in the Indian Ocean near the Tanggamus area.

After receiving information, the joint SAR team immediately headed to the location to evacuate the victims.

In the evacuation process, as many as 25 crew members were successfully rescued and eight others were still missing.

SAR operations involve elements of Basarnas, Polairud Mabes Polri, Polairud Polda Lampung, TNI AL, as well as elements of the community and local volunteers.

The Lampung SAR Office ensures that information on the development of SAR operations will continue to be conveyed to the public periodically.