Pelni Increases Security On Ships To Prevent Passengers From Jumping Into The Sea

Illustration of marine guarding (photo: Doc between)

JAKARTA - PT Pelni increases patrols of security officers on passenger ships operated at certain times. This is to prevent incidents of people or passengers jumping into the sea.

"The patrols in almost everyone took a break between 23.00 or midnight until dawn," said PT Pelni Balikpapan Branch Head Amrulloh, quoting Antara, Sunday, March 26.

Security officers will patrol the outside decks, greeting and communicating if there were passengers at that time on the deck.

"We also appeal to passengers through the announcement on board so that they are not on the outside deck during rest hours," said Amin.

Earlier on Wednesday (22/3) one passenger KM Tidar to Balikpapan-Parepare was known to have jumped from the ship into the sea at 00.38 Central Indonesia Time (WITA).

The passenger was later identified as a woman named Anugrah, and boarded KM Tidar from Tunon Taka Port, Tarakan with the final destination of Parepare. KM Tidar stopped at Semayang Harbor, Balikpapan, Tuesday (21/3) to pick up passengers to Parepare.

The ship departed from Semayang Harbor at 22.00 p.m. smoothly and left Balikpapan Bay immediately headed southwest.

However, when it was about 40 miles from Balikpapan, at coordinates 1 degree 39 minutes south latitude and 117 degrees 18 minutes east longitude, the Man Over Board (MOB) or people fell into the sea.

As soon as he found out about this, the sub-district ordered to reduce speed and asked the helmsman to maneuver Williamson Turn to find and rescue the victim. In the left and right hulls, the ship also prepared a rescue team to go down to sea and pick up the victim.

There is also Williamson Turn which is the movement of the ship, because in essence the ship which is at full speed in the high seas cannot just stop to pick up the person who fell.

The ship continued to advance while continuing to reduce speed, and then the driver turned his bow up to 360 degrees and returned to the starting point it was realized that the passenger fell into the sea, especially if the person who fell could continue to be seen.

This maneuver is also to avoid the person who fell from being hit by the ship's propellers.

At the incident at KM Tidar, due to the night incident, the witnesses lost their eyes on the victim even though they had been assisted in sweeping the sea with the ship's spotlight.

The ship carried out Williamson Turn up to 4 times around the coordinates of the scene, but also failed to detect where the victim was so he could be helped return to the ship.

Finally, after searching for almost 2 hours and not finding the victim, KM Tidar continued his journey at 01.50 WITA.

The captain immediately reported the incident of a person falling into the sea (MOB) to Balikpapan Beach Radio Station and spreading information to other ships on the route via ship radio about someone falling into the sea.

Amin also emphasized that from the start KM Tidar had a safety fence so that passengers would not approach the edge of the ship either on the deck, in the bow, or at the stern. This is to prevent the occurrence of passengers jumping or farthest into the sea.

The SAR team from Balipapan then continued the search, but until (Saturday 25/3) the victims of Anugrah had not been found.