High Sea Water Waves, Search For Missing Taiwanese Citizens In The Thousand Islands Temporarily Stopped

Search for Taiwanese citizens in the Thousand Islands/ Photo: IST

JAKARTA The search for Taiwanese who disappeared in the waters of the Thousand Islands has again been temporarily suspended by the DKI Jakarta National SAR Agency (Basarnas). The search was stopped due to high waves that endangered the officers.

"Our search temporarily suspended on Wednesday afternoon at 17.30 WIB," said Head of the Operations Section (Kasiop) of the DKI Jakarta Basarnas Agung Priambodo, Wednesday, March 13.

Agung explained that the search, which was carried out from Wednesday morning to this afternoon, had not yielded any results because it was hampered by sea waves.

"We are constrained by quite high sea waves," said Agung.

He said the search for victims on the fourth day would resume on Thursday morning, March 14.

"Tomorrow we start again and hopefully the victim can be found," hoped Agung.

Previously, the Head of the DKI Jakarta Search and Rescue Office (Basarnas) Desiana Kartika Bahari said the search for Taiwanese who were missing when the KM Pari Kudus ship capsized was hampered by high waves.

"As of Wednesday afternoon, no search has been found and is still in the process of being searched," he said.

The difficulty of today's search is due to waves of water rising with a height of 1.25 meters to 2.5 meters.

"Yesterday we were still able to dive because the height was below 1.25 meters but it was difficult because the visibility was only one meter," he said.

The search was carried out above the surface of the water according to the specified search coordinates.

"The team is currently divided into four teams to conduct searches," he said.

The joint team deployed eight ships to search for a Taiwanese named Shi Yi who was declared missing when KM Pari Kudus capsized in the waters of Rambut Island, Thousand Islands, Monday, March 11.

The victim was wearing a gray t-shirt, black pants and black hat and was around 40-45 years old.