On The 7th Day Of The Search, 6 Victims Of KM Osela Babel Have Not Been Found

The Joint SAR Team for the Province of the Bangka Belitung Islands focused on finding victims of the sinking ship in the north of the Bangka Island in Pangkalpinang, Friday (22/8/2025). (ANTARA)

PANGKALPINANG - The Joint SAR Team of the Bangka Belitung Islands Province focused on searching for six victims of KM Osela drowned in the northern sea of Bangka Island, because the direction of the current and wind headed north of the island.

"The search for victims yesterday was nil and hopefully today will produce results," said Head of the Pangkalpinang SAR Office I Made Oka Astawa, quoted by ANTARA, Friday, August 22.

He said the search for six crew members of the KM Osela ship that sank in the waters of Gelasa Island on Friday (15/8) was still continuing using two main tools for KN SAR KARNA 246 and KN Belut Laut 406 which were focused on the north of Bangka Island.

"For today's search, we focus on searching above the north of Bangka Island, because the drift or drift on the Maps SAR leads to that which is influenced by the current and wind," he said.

He stated that the search for six of the nine crew members of KM Osela who had not been found began at 06:00 WIB, where the Joint SAR Team continued its search area with a search area of 1,700 Nm2 north of the island.

"We have calculated this manually and computerized, hopefully today's search will produce results," he said.

According to him, efforts have been made by the Joint SAR Team from E-Broadcast as well as propellants to ships passing through the drift or drift of victims, but so far they have not found the six crew members.

"The obstacle faced by the Joint SAR Team in this search is because the initial information has collapsed by 80 hours or has passed 3 days, bringing the search area from the LKP to a wide enough area so that the probability is shrinking," he said.

He added that this obstacle was added that the direction of the drift (drift) did not lead to the beach, so it tended to be carried away by the current towards the waters of Pulau Tujuh and Tanjungpinang.

"We received information about the KM Osela accident which broke out due to bad weather and sank in the waters of Karang Mardalena, Gelasa Island on Sunday (17/8) and immediately deployed a joint team to search for victims of this ill-fated ship," he said.