Semarang, Indonesia – Rescue boats scoured the sea Sunday where an Indonesian ferry sank during a violent storm, picking up scores of exhausted survivors from choppy waters. At least 400 more remained missing, officials and media reports said.
Almost two days after the ship went down in the Java Sea, helicopters dropped food and water to a group of about 30 survivors drifting in a life raft after heavy waves prevented rescuers from approaching them, Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said.
“Pictures from the air showed they were all alive and waving for help,” he said.
Survivors told harrowing stories of the minutes before the Senopati Nusantara capsized about midnight Friday, as well as the struggle to stay alive.
Waluyo, 50, recalled holding onto a large tire and seeing two of his children lose their grip and drown.
“For 17 hours we held on, sometimes being turned over in the swell, but one by one the people fell off, including my two children,” he said from a hospital Sunday. “I could not do anything apart from pray.”
Waluyo, like many Indonesians, goes by a single name.
By late Sunday, authorities had found 177 survivors, either clinging to wood, packed into life rafts or on beaches after swimming ashore, transport department official Soeharto was quoted as saying.
Ships also recovered at least 66 bodies, Soeharto said. The ferry is believed to have had 638 people aboard, Radjasa said earlier.
