The SAR Team Finds The KM Cahaya Arafah Ship On The South Halmahera Seabed At A Depth Of 45 Meters Including 4 Victims

TERNATE - The Ternate Basarnas Search and Rescue Office, North Maluku (Malut) on its third day of searching found the carcass of KM Cahaya Arafah on the seabed and four victims.

"When the diver team was looking for victims, they found the KM Cahaya Arafah ship in a position on the seabed at a depth of 45 meters and the divers team also managed to find four victims," said Head of Basarnas Ternate Fathur Rahman as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, July 20.

The search started at 07.00 WIT. After the dive, the SAR team found the carcass of KM Cahaya Arafah which sank in Tokaka Waters, West Gane District, South Halmahera Regency.

Fathur explained that the first victim was Siti Presenta Pakelo (42), a resident of Yomen Village, Joronga District. The victim was found at 11.44 WIT at a depth of 45 meters near the wreck. An hour later, the dive team found three other victims, consisting of two adult women and one child.

The victims are Hamima (69), a resident of Dolik, West Gane District, Nurjae Ahmad (50), a Tokaka resident of West Gane District, and RA (4), a resident of Tokaka, West Gane District. The three victims were found not far from the first victim, at a depth of 45 meters. With the discovery of the four victims, the SAR team is still trying to find the remaining nine victims.

The third day of SAR operations was temporarily suspended with the result that four victims were found dead. It is planned that the search operation will resume on the fourth day, Thursday, July 21.

Fathur said the success of finding the bodies of the four passengers was the result of the support and assistance of three divers or the Nabucco Spice Island Resort divers who took part in the search for the victims.

Of the three divers, he said, two of them were foreigners, namely Kurt Gehrig (from Germany) and Alanah Boddeman (a Swiss citizen) assisted by a local diver.