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Journalism of Courage
Twelve men who were on an Indonesian ferry that sank last week with more than 600 people on board were rescued on Wednesday after clambering onto an offshore oil rig, navy officers said.
The survivors, who were weak after spending more than four days in the Java Sea, were picked up some 200 km from where the ferry sank after drifting in heavy waves, said Navyspokesman Lt Col Tony Syaiful.
The Senopati Nusantara sank late Friday after being pounded by waves for 10 hours during a violent storm en route from Indonesia8217;s section of Borneo island to the main island of Java.
At least 212 people have been found alive so far, most of them plucked from life-rafts or clinging on to debris, but some 400 remain missing, said Navy Col Jan Simamora, the head of the search and rescue mission.
Rescuers also expanded their search for a missing jetliner to a triangle-shaped swath of sea and jungle on Wednesday, a day after Indonesian officials outraged relatives by wrongly claiming the Boeing 7378217;s wreckage and survivors had been found.
The Adam Air plane carrying 102 people was flying from Indonesia8217;s main island of Java to North Sulawesi8217;s provincial capital of Manado when it disappeared on Monday in stormy weather after sending out distress signals8212; one over mountainous jungles and the other along the coast.
Relatives broke down in tears after high-ranking aviation, military and police officials acknowledged on Tuesday that the claims of the crash site whichhad been found along with survivors were false, based only on hearsay.
Rescue teams spent more than 10 hours on Tuesday hiking through slippery forest paths in a mountainous region of Sulawesi8217;s western coast but found nothing, prompting authorities to expand their search on Wednesday to include the sea, Bambang Karnoyudho, the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, said.
Visibility was good but there was no sign of the plane, said Air Force Squadron Commander Lt Col Mudjianto, whose team followed the Boeing 7378217;s scheduled flight path to the site where its last distress signal was picked up.
Karnoyudho, chief of the national search and rescue agency, said he thought it most likely that the plane had fallen into the sea.
Adam Air is one of at least a dozen budget carriers that have emerged in the country since 1999, when the industry was deregulated. The rapid expansion has led to cheap flights to scores of destinations around the sprawling nation, but has raised some safety concerns, since maintenance on the leased planes is reportedly poor.
National aviation chief Ichsan Tatang said the plane involved in Monday8217;s disaster was 17 years old, had flown 45,371 hours and passed its last inspection on December 25.
Adam Air, which began operations in 2003, was founded by Agung Laksono, the speaker of Indonesia8217;s house of representatives.
