MAKASSAR - The Makassar Class A Search and Rescue Office (Basarnas) carried out a SAR operation in response to the accident of the passenger ship KM Nurul Salsa which sank in the Selayar waters, west of Polassi Island, Selayar Islands Regency, South Sulawesi.
"Our initial data received said that the number of passengers was 50 people. However, after being re-verified with the parties concerned, the total number of people on board reached 70 people. Currently, the joint SAR team is still searching for 24 people who have not been found," said Head of Basarnas Makassar Muhammad Arif Anwardi Makassar, Thursday, July 16, reported by ANTARA.
Information obtained, the KM Nurul Salsa ship sailed from Jampea Island to Selayar Fortress Port on Wednesday (15/7) at around 05.00 WITA carrying passengers.
During the journey, the ship experienced engine failure in the middle of the journey in the waters west of Polassi Island or about 43 nautical miles (NM) from the Selayar Fortress Port.
After receiving the report, said Arif, his party immediately deployed SAR personnel to search and assist the ship's passengers.
"As soon as we received information about the KM Nurul Salsa experiencing engine failure in the Selayar waters, we immediately deployed SAR elements to search and evacuate all passengers and crew," he said.
In the operation, with the help of the KM Harapan Kita which moved from Jampea Island, a number of passengers of the KM Nurul Salsa were found and evacuated on Thursday (16/7) at around 04.00 WITA.
A total of 41 people were successfully evacuated by the KM Harapan Kita, including the crew, from a location about 18 NM from the point of incident. Meanwhile, six other people were rescued by a fishing boat that was around the scene of the incident and evacuated to Polassi Island.
Arif emphasized that all elements of the joint SAR would continue to make maximum search efforts in accordance with the SAR operating procedures. His party asked for prayers so that the SAR team could immediately find the victim as soon as possible.
"This victim data is still not valid, because the joint SAR team is still waiting for information from the family, and hopefully there will be no more reports of family members being in the Nurul Salsa KM," he concluded.
The SAR operation for the KM Nurul Salsa accident is still ongoing with a focus on searching around the scene of the incident and the area that has been determined based on the calculation of Search and Rescue Planning (Sarmap).
The search operation involved a number of joint SAR elements, including the Selayar SAR Post Rescue Team, the Basarnas Makassar Office Rescue Team, the Indonesian Navy, the ABK KRI Marlin 877, the ABK KM Harapan Kita, the Selayar BPBD, Syahbandar, SROP Selayar, Polair, and fishing boats that also helped the evacuation process.
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