Indonesia ferry disaster: Toll of missing soars to 180 as drone joins search for boat wreckage

At least 180 people are feared dead in a tourist ferry disaster in Indonesia, as authorities dramatically raised an estimate of the number of people missing.

The wooden boat sank in the picturesque Lake Toba on Sumatra island on Monday evening, as the wind picked up and waters turned rough. Eighteen survivors were pulled from the water shortly afterwards.

But divers and an underwater drone joined the search on Wednesday as officials released the new missing toll; three times the ferry’s official capacity and up from around 130 previously, including many children.

“We’re searching for 180 people,” said Budiawan, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) in Medan.

Rescuers are yet to find the wreckage of the boat itself and an ongoing search on the surface of the lake has so far come up with little. “We have the coordinates from when it sank, but we need to verify it,” Budiawan said.

The search is expected to find many victims trapped in the vessel on the lake bed. “Many survivors told authorities that less than half of them had jumped into the water before the boat sank,” said north Sumatra province police chief Paulus Waterpau.

A team of 25 divers, including marines, were searching for the vessel, along with a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV), though that can only operate up to a depth of 380 metres.

Suwarni, whose 20-year-old son and his girlfriend were on the ferry, criticised the search and rescue operation as slow and insufficient.

“Millions of questions keep me from sleeping,” she told the Associated Press between desperate sobs. “Why is a boat for just 50 people allowed to be loaded with almost 200 people plus dozens of motorcycles?

“What kind of government is this that can’t protect their own people from unnecessary accidents? And after the accident they’re not able to find the victims,” she said. “I beg help to everyone to quickly find my son and his girlfriend, even if their remains, please find my son, return him to me.”

Survivor Juwita Sumbayak, from Medan, said she had crossed the lake many times on the same boat but on Monday it was terribly overcrowded because of holidays for the end of Ramadan. She believes her husband and children drowned inside the boat.

She said that about 20 minutes into the journey, strong high waves caused the ferry to list to the right and take on water, sparking a panic among passengers. Then it was smacked hard by more waves and a small, empty wooden boat. The ferry seemed to shake, Sumbayak said, then suddenly capsized.

“Many passengers without a life jacket jumped into the deep lake, but others drowned with the boat,” she said. “I jumped, I cried with fear.” She saw dozens of people in the water “but nobody can help”.

Ferry tragedies are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, with weak enforcement of safety regulations often to blame. The disaster has cast a tragic pall over the holidays marking the end of Ramadan, when tens of millions of Indonesians return to their hometowns.

The lake is a popular tourism destination, although there has been no information yet on whether foreigners were among the missing. The vessel, overcrowded with passengers as well as dozens of motorbikes, didn’t have a cargo document.

The Foreign Office warns British travellers to Indonesia: “Inter-island travel by boat or ferry can be dangerous as storms can appear quickly, vessels can be crowded and safety standards vary between providers.

“In 2016, the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency recorded 715 boat accidents (of which 14 were in Bali and Lombok), resulting in injuries and deaths.”

Worldwide, far more passengers die on ferries than on aircraft. The toll is particularly high in Asia, due to a lethal combination of high population, a multiplicity of sea and river routes and, on many routes, dubious safety standards.

The London-based International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has become increasingly concerned about what it calls “the unacceptable loss of lives” on domestic ferries in Asia.

Indonesia’s transport minister, Budi Karya, has said investigators would check whether the ferry had been equipped with life jackets and whether they had been used.

Muhaimin, 61, said he had lost eight members of his family including two sons, their wives and children.

“My sons, my daughter-in-laws and my grandchildren have been the victims of greedy businessmen who just want to take advantage of the holiday season without thinking of people’s safety,” he said. “It would not happen if they follow the rules. But they made money over our misery.”

Additional reporting by agencies