The SAR Team For The Evacuation Of 15 Passengers Of The Kandas Tourism Ship In The Komodo National Park Area

The joint SAR team arrived at Marina Labuan Bajo Port along with 15 passengers on the KM Wafil Putra ship that ran aground in Tanjung China in the Komodo National Park/ANTARA/Gecio Viana area.

LABUAN BAJO - The joint search and rescue team (SAR) evacuated 15 passengers of a tourist boat that ran aground in Tanjung China in the Komodo National Park (TNK) area, West Manggarai Regency (Mabar), East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

"The ship hit a coral or ran aground with 15 passengers," said West Manggarai SAR Post Coordinator Edy Suryono as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, May 14.

A total of 15 passengers on the ship consist of 14 foreign tourists and one tour guide.

The tourist ship named KM Wafil Putra departed from Labuan Bajo to Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB). The ship reportedly ran aground at 19.00 WITA.

The ship hit a reef while the sea water was receding and fortunately at the time of the incident there were other tourist boats, so the victims could be evacuated to a tourist boat in the vicinity of the incident.

"The evacuation process for ships that hit the reef was carried out by the Bintang Laut ship and transferred to the Basarnas ship and KPLP (Sea and Coast Guard Unit)," he said.

Currently, he continued, the tourist boat is still at the scene.

Meanwhile, tourists who arrived at Marina Labuan Bajo Port at around 22:40 WITA and the joint SAR Team were immediately handed over to the travel agency.

"The ship's position is sinking, slightly to the beach, we return the evacuated tourists to the agents for handling and for the ship waiting for the tide to come out again, the ship's captain is still at the location," he said.