Indonesia says nearly 250 missing in ferry sinking

Transport Minister Jusman Syafi'i Djamal told a news conference that a preliminary investigation showed the ten-year-old boat capsized after it was hit by waves.

The meteorology agency had warned of bad weather in the area but Djamal said that port authorities had given the ferry the go-ahead to leave and conditions were clear when it left.

"We will investigate thoroughly why the captain decided to go," the minister said, adding that 22 survivors had been found so far, while 245 were missing.
Indonesia's ageing transport system has been plagued by a spate of disasters in recent years including ferry and air accidents.

The ferry, which had 250 passengers and 17 crew, was travelling about 487 km (302 miles) from Pare-Pare on the west coast of Sulawesi to Samarinda city on Indonesia's side of Borneo island when it ran into bad weather on Sunday.

An official on Sulawesi quoted survivors as saying the ferry rolled over and sank after being hit by waves of more than 5 meters (16 feet) in the early hours of Sunday.

One survivor, Daeng Gassing, who spoke as several sobbing relatives comforted him, said he had managed to scramble onto a life raft after clinging to a piece of wood and had pulled five others to safety but his son and father-in-law were missing.

"I grabbed my son on my back and swam to a piece of wood, but my son disappeared after being hit by a big wave," he said.

Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry's crisis centre, said that six deaths had been confirmed.

"There is a greater possibility that many more died than we expected because it happened when they were sleeping," Taufik Bulu, head of maritime safety in Pare-Pare, said.

A senior official said the captain was not able to switch on a general alarm to warn passengers.

Metro TV reported the captain, who flung himself into the sea before the ship sank, told police that the crew could only launch two flares before the vessel went down.

RESCUE EFFORTS
Ferries are vital in the world's fourth-most populous country, which has more than 17,000 islands spanning a distance of 5,000 km, the equivalent of going from Ireland to Iran. But accidents are common largely because of under-investment in infrastructure and a tendency to overload the boats.

The transport minister denied the ferry had been overloaded.

The rescue effort, which involved several airplanes and three navy ships, was delayed on Monday due to bad weather, said search and rescue head, Ida Bagus Sanubari.

But in Pare-Pare, a Reuters photographer saw a transport ministry ship loaded with body bags depart for the search area.

In the port, a group of about 100 people were thronging around a list of passengers, some fainting and appearing hysterical, while in Samarinda, desperate relatives awaited news.

"We heard two more people had been rescued. Hopefully, one of them is my family member," Arifin Abdul Hafid told Metro TV.

There had been warnings of heavy seas in several parts of Indonesia in recent days and the transport minister said there had been a tropical cyclone in the area at the time.

Indonesia has come under pressure in recent years to improve its transportation sector following several serious accidents.

On Dec. 30, 2006, a ferry with at least 600 onboard sank in a storm after it travelled between Borneo and Java. About 250 survivors were eventually found in the days after the accident.

A couple of months later at least 42 people were killed when fire broke out aboard a ferry that was heading from Jakarta to Bangka island off Sumatra.

There have also been a series of accidents involving Indonesian airlines, prompting the European Union to ban Indonesian carriers from its airspace.