Indonesian rescuers are searching for a speedboat carrying 11 European tourists and two local crew members that went missing off a bay of the country’s Sulawesi Island, officials said yesterday.The vessel departed Tojo Unauna regency in Central Sulawesi Province on Friday morning bound for Marisa Port in the neighboring Gorontalo Province, but failed to arrive as scheduled, Gorontalo Province Search and Rescue Office head Heriyanto said.A local tour guide reported the missing boat to the search and rescue office at 3:40pm on Friday, prompting an immediate search operation, said Heriyanto, who, like many Indonesians, uses a single name.
Indonesian Navy personnel cruises on a rubber boat during a search for victims after a passenger boat that sank in the waters near Balaloho Island in South Sulawesi on July 15.
Photo courtesy of Makassar SAR Office via AP
“Concerns arose when their speedboat had not arrived by afternoon,” he said. “We immediately launched a search mission overnight but until now have not found any signs” of the vessel or people on board, he added.
A Czech man, a Belgian man, five Dutch nationals, three Germans, a French woman and two Indonesian crew members were on board, Indonesian authorities said.There was no immediate comment from the embassies representing the missing tourists.Dozens of search and rescue teams were deployed in an operation covering about 300 square nautical miles of waters along and around Tomini Bay, a renowned marine tourism destination, with dozens of islands dotting its vast waters, based on the tour boat’s route projections. A thermal-imaging drone and diving equipment are also being used in the search, Heriyanto said.Indonesia’s meteorological agency forecast generally clear skies in the area, but rescuers yesterday faced challenging sea conditions, including strong winds and waves reaching up to 2.5m high.Indonesia is an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, where boats are a common form of transportation. With lax safety standards and problems with overcrowding, accidents occur frequently.
