Palu, Indonesia: Indonesian rescuers are searching for a speedboat carrying 11 European tourists and two local crew members that went missing off a bay on Sulawesi island, officials said Saturday.
The vessel departed Tojo Unauna regency in Central Sulawesi province on Friday morning bound for Marisa Port in the neighbouring Gorontalo province but failed to arrive as scheduled, said Heriyanto, Head of the Gorontalo Province Search and Rescue Office.
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.
“Concerns arose when their speedboat had not arrived by afternoon,” Heriyanto said. “We immediately launched a search mission overnight but until now have not found any signs” of the vessel or people on board.
A Czech man, a Belgian man, five Dutch nationals, three Germans, a French woman and two Indonesian crew members were on board, according to Indonesian authorities.
There was no immediate comment from the embassies representing the missing tourists.
Heriyanto said dozens of search and rescue teams were deployed in a search operation covering approximately 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, he said.
Indonesia’s meteorological agency forecast generally clear skies in the area, but rescuers on Saturday have faced challenging sea conditions, including strong winds and waves reaching up to 2.5 metres 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.
On July 15, a passenger boat carrying 76 people sank off Selayar Island, killing at least four people and leaving 14 others missing.
AP
