JAKARTA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian Navy is deploying personnel, ships and aircraft to take part in efforts to find more than 200 people who have gone missing in a shipwreck in the Makassar Strait on Sunday morning, a spokesman said Monday.
"To find them, the Navy is initiating land, sea and air operations," Antara news agency Monday quoted Col Joko Santoso, assistant for intelligence to the commander of the Navy's Main Base VI in Makassar, as saying.
He said 40 naval personnel were assigned to join the Search and Rescue Team to find the missing boat travelers.
Four naval warships were also deployed to help in the search in the sea in addition to two boats from the Marine Police Command in South Sulawesi and three other boats from the Police Headquarters.
"Air-borne search operations will be done by a navy helicopter and a Nomad from the National Defense Forces (TNI) Headquarters. They will arrive at Sultan Hasanuddin airport from Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, while an Air Force Boeing 7301 is already in the area of the shipwreck," he said.
According to the Navy, the ill-fated boat was carrying a total 317 people, including 17 crew members and its skipper.
So far, only 23 were saved, according to Wahidah, the administrator of Parepare port from where the ship had departed for Samarinda in East Kalimantan.
JAKARTA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A ship passing the Majene waters saved the 23rd survivor of the ferry Teratai Prima, which sank early Sunday morning on its way from Pare-pare in South Sulawesi to Samarinda in East Kalimantan, the Jakarta Post reported on Monday. Full story
JAKARTA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Overloading is not the main reason for the sinking of ship KM Teratai Prima Kosong off the West Sulawesi coast, said an Indonesian official on Monday. Full story
BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao sent a message of condolence to his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday after a passenger ferry capsized a day earlier in the waters off Indonesia's Sulawesi island.
President Hu, on behalf of the Chinese government and people, expressed his deep condolences to victims of the disaster and to their families. Full story
JAKARTA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A total of 182 passengers went missing as their motorboat sank in Parepare waters of Indonesia's South Sulawesi province at 4 a.m. on Sunday when it was sailing from the Parepare port to Balikpapan.
The boat, named KM Teratai, left the Parpare port at 4 p.m. on Saturday but sank in Parepare waters due to huge waves on Sunday, the Antara news agency quoted a rescue coordinator as saying. Full story
JAKARTA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The bad weather hampered the rescuers' efforts to help ferry disaster survivors near Majene, West Sulawesi in Indonesia, an official was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.
Ilham, a spokesperson for the Majene port authority, said a rescue boat from the Parepare Port in South Sulawesi was unable to reach the approximate area where the ferry was believed to have gone down. Full story
