•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

The local chapter of the National Search and Rescue Agency in Tanjung Pinang, Riau, is still searching for two crew members missing after a tugboat sank off Bintan Island.

“As of now, we are still searching for the two victims who remain missing,” said Bambang Subagyo, the head of the Tanjung Pinang chapter of the agency known as Basarnas.

The tugboat sank in the Bukit Panglong waters off Bintan on Sunday as it was pulling the Queen 101 barge to the island’s ship dockyard for repairs.

One after another, the two cable slings connecting the two vessels broke, causing the much larger barge to ram into the smaller tugboat, sinking it.

Two crewmen, including a machinist, went missing while six other members of the crew were rescued.

The two missing were identified as Mansur, the machinist, and boat hand Syamsul Rizal.

Witnesses said Mansur may have been trapped inside the sinking boat, while Syamsul reportedly was last seen jumping into the sea as the boat began taking on water.

The accident took place about one hour before dusk on Sunday, and the search continued well into the evening.

At the accident site, the search was also assisted by several fishermen with their boats.

“We are deploying about 10 members of the search and rescue team using one rubber boat,” Bambang said.

He added that the search was easier than some as the tugboat had sunk near the coast and not in the middle of the sea.

A number of boating accidents have been recorded in Indonesian waters in recent months. Most recently, a boat overloaded with some 250 asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Iran sank off the coast of East Java on Dec. 17.

Close to 100 bodies have been found, while around 70 are still missing and presumed dead. Only 47 survivors were rescued from the boat or found alive.

Antara