KM Tiga Brothers Passenger Floats 11 Hours At Sea Before Finally Rescued

PHOTO VIA BETWEEN

AMBON - The passengers of KM. The Three Brothers who drowned between the waters of Pulau Tiga and the waters of Namlea Ilath Village, Buru Regency, Maluku, were actually floating and carried away by the current for 11 hours before being rescued by residents who were searching for them.

"Based on the information we received from the ship's skipper, it turned out that they drowned on Friday night (14 January) at around 21:30 WIT due to being hit by high waves," said the Commander of the Sandar Namlea Post, the Maluku Police, Bripka B. Pinge, quoted by Antara, Sunday, January 16.

According to him, the skipper of KM Tiga Brothers also admitted that they did not depart from the Hatukau-Ongkoliong Batumera People's Harbor (Ambon City), but from Galala Beach, which is located close to the PLTD building owned by PLN.

This 18 GT wooden ship carrying 100 bags of cement and various basic necessities departed on Friday, January 14 in the morning around 04:00 WIT.

On the way to Namlea Ilat, Buru Island, the skipper took the initiative to take shelter temporarily near Tiga Island due to bad weather.

Then at 14.00 WIT, the ship departed from Tiga Island again towards Namlea Ilath Village (Buru Island), but when it arrived in the middle of the road at around 21.30 WIT, the ship was hit by a big wave and sank.

"When the ship sank, the victims fled using rafts from jerry cans and canoes and secured food and water supplies, then the victims were carried by the current closer to Manipa Island until Saturday, January 15, 2022," explained Pinge quoting the shipowner's explanation.

Then at around 10.00 WIT, the two victims took the initiative to separate from the group using the raft, then swam to Manipa Island until finally they were found by the people who were doing the search safely.

Then at 11.00 WIT, one victim on behalf of Aripin Tomia again took the initiative to separate from the group that was floating using a jerry can raft.

"He used a canoe to row to Buru Island and then separated from the group," he said.

The other six victims floated on rafts made of jerry cans and were still carried by the current approximately 25 miles from the shore and were found by the villagers of Namlea Ilath who happened to be searching for them using a longboard.

Eventually they were found safe and the victims were taken to Namlea Ilath village for treatment.

"At 12.00 WIT the joint SAR team returned to search for one victim who had not been found with the help of the Namlea Ilath Village community, where the water search area was between Buru Island, Manipa Island and Ambalau Island," Pinge explained.

In the process of searching for victims without success, the joint SAR team took the initiative to return to Namlea due to rain, strong winds and high waves.

At 16.00 WIT the joint SAR team arrived in Namlea and consolidated, so that the search process will continue the next day, and if the victim has not been found, the search will continue for the next six days.