Entering The 6th Day, KM Sumber Daya That Sank In Pulau Berhala Has Not Been Found Yet

The Jambi Basarnas team before conducting a search for KM Resources in the Berhala waters. (ANTARA/HO)

JAKARTA - The joint SAR team on the sixth day of a search effort used an underwater search tool to find KM Sumber Daya, a ship that sank after being hit by a storm in the waters of Berhala Island on its way to the Riau Archipelago on March 10, 2022.

"The Jambi Basarnas and the Jambi Regional Police Polairud after using sonar have now deployed an underwater searching device to search for the wreck or debris of the sunken ship," said Head of the Jambi Search and Relief Office (Basarnas) Abdul Malik, Thursday, March 17, as quoted from Antara.

"This is done to see the underwater conditions around the last place the ship was seen before sinking," he added.

According to him, search efforts will be carried out from morning to evening in an area within a radius of 10 nautical miles from the location where KM Sumber Daya is estimated to have sunk based on information from a crew member who survived.

Abdul Malik led the search effort on the sixth day, which also involved crew members who survived the disaster.

So far, the SAR team has not found any signs of KM Sumber Daya and the two crew members who were reported missing.

After the seventh day, Basarnas will evaluate the execution of the search effort to decide whether to extend or discontinue operations to find KM Sumber Daya.

KM Sumber Daya reportedly lost contact after being hit by a storm in the waters of Berhala Island on the evening of March 10, 2022, on his way from Nipah Panjang in Tanjungjabung Timur Regency, Jambi Province, to Batam City in the Riau Islands Province.

According to the directory of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Berhala Island is in the Malacca Strait and administratively is in the Serdang Bedagai Regency, North Sumatra Province.