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Bodies of 20 passengers, including 9 children, recovered
Gloomy day: Residents watch officers move bodies recovered after a fishing boat incident in Sei Kubung waters, Labuhan Batu regency, North Sumatra, on Friday
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Gloomy day:: Residents watch officers move bodies recovered after a fishing boat incident in Sei Kubung waters, Labuhan Batu regency, North Sumatra, on Friday. As many as 20 passengers were killed in the accident. (Antara/Rezha Satriady) (Antara/Rezha Satriady)
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span class="inline inline-left">Gloomy day: Residents watch officers move bodies recovered after a fishing boat incident in Sei Kubung waters, Labuhan Batu regency, North Sumatra, on Friday. As many as 20 passengers were killed in the accident. (Antara/Rezha Satriady)
Search and rescue (SAR) workers managed to recover on Friday the bodies of 20 people who were killed in a boating accident in Tanjung Ledong waters, off Labuhan Batu regency, North Sumatra.
Nine of the dead were children, identified as Juneri, 5; Putriani, 5; Hanafi, 4; Minah, 11; Ridwan, 7-months-old; Farel, 3; Aida Azuro, 2; Bulan, 2, and Fira, 3.
Labuhan Batu Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ahmad Fauzi said a joint SAR team had been carrying out
the recovery operation since Thursday.
Fauzi added that on the first day of the operation, the SAR team managed to recover 13 bodies, while on the second day, seven more victims, initially declared as missing, were recovered.
'All the bodies of the 20 fatalities have been recovered, Fauzi told The Jakarta Post by phone on Friday.
When asked whether police had determined any suspects in the accident, Fauzi said the facts remained unclear, as police officers on the SAR team had been focusing on the search for victims.
He added, however, that the boat's captain, Koling, was still in a state of shock, having lost eight members of his family in the accident.
The 4-gross tonnage fishing boat capsized and sank in Tanjung Ledong waters en route to Sei Berombang, Labuhan Batu, on Wednesday evening. The boat, which was carrying 48 people, sank after running out of fuel and hit a mooring pole and capsized.
Twenty people were killed, while 28 others survived the accident.
The coordinator of the Tanjungbalai Asahan SAR team, Zul Indra, said Koling's 3-year-old twins, Najmi and Rahmat, and his wife, Nursiah, were among the survivors.
Zul said the two toddlers had survived as Nursiah had protected them. However, Zul added that the twins' eight siblings had perished.
'The twins survived, but their eight brothers and sisters were killed. Their mother is still in shock because she was unable to save all her children,' he said.
The Labuhan Batu regency administration promised it would inspect the mooring pole, on which boats are secured, which has been blamed for the accident.
'We will inspect the scene of the accident,' Labuhan Batu Deputy Regent Suhari Pane said Thursday as quoted by Antara news agency.
Usually, he added, the pole acted as a mooring point for fishing boats to land their catch near the shore.
'Based on the information we have received, the fishing boat capsized after hitting the pole in the fog,' he said.
He added that there should not be any kind of obstacles along shipping paths. 'We will conduct an inspection to determine whether the mooring pole was located near the shore or whether it was in the shipping lane.'
Separately, Labuhan Batu Legislative Council (DPRD) speaker Ellya Rosa Siregar said she supported the inspection of the mooring pole and the boat's operational license.
'This is important, because limitations are placed on fishing boats, including the distance they can travel from the shoreline,' she said.
