TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

3 foreign sailors die after barge sinks

A barge near Tanjung Pinggir, Batam sunk during a trial, causing the death of three foreign sailors on Friday, although the barge was only found on Saturday

Fadli (The Jakarta Post)

Batam

Sun, July 20, 2014 Published on Jul. 20, 2014 Published on 2014-07-20T08:40:46+07:00

A

barge near Tanjung Pinggir, Batam sunk during a trial, causing the death of three foreign sailors on Friday, although the barge was only found on Saturday.

Indonesian Sea and Coast Guard Unit (KPLP) base operations head Tanjung Uban Faisal told The Jakarta Post that the barge was being tested at the Out Post Limit (OPL) between Indonesia and Singapore, and there were three foreign sailors and six Indonesian crew members on board.

"We were testing the barge by submerging part of the ship that needed to be repaired, located on top of the vessel. The water was meant to be pumped out and the vessel would rise again. However, the trial failed last night," Faisal said on Saturday.

Faisal explained the KPLP had received a call for assistance at around 10 p.m. and had succeeded in finding several of the crew on Saturday.

The six Indonesian crew members were saved, even though it took the KPLP a while to find one of the crew who was trapped in a room.

The bodies of Ye Myint Myat, 33, from Myanmar; Zhejiang, 28, from China; and Chew Zhi Terence, 34, from Singapore; were taken to BP Batam Hospital.

The barge was reportedly made in China in 2012, was owned by a Singaporean company and carried a Singaporean flag. (fss/dic)