Indonesian boat sinks

[Wingy]

Just saw this pop up -

Tourist boat sinks in Indonesia, 15 missing

It appears 15 people of varying nationalities are still missing. Hope luck is with them.

 

[Searcaigh]

15 still missing from a boat must include the crew then since the max passenger is 14

Komodo Liveaboard with MV Blue Dragon

 

[Cali_diver]

I don't understand this.. If they were having engine problems why weren't they prepared for what happened. How are they scattered across the ocean with some clinging to the boat? Where were the lifeboats? What a nightmare. I hope they find the others soon....

I remember something a few years back about another blue dragon boat sinking.....

http://www.thebalitimes.com/2010/09/16/bali-diveboat-sinking/

 

[Wookie]

Their website describes a 15 passenger life raft and the newspaper article suggests that there were 25 persons onboard. I've said it before and gotten in trouble for it, but it reinforces my beliefs. Safety of some of these third world boats is not as carefully considered as it is on vessels subject to more rigorous inspection standards.

Not to say anyone can't lose an engine or go aground. Hopefully it isn't the normal course of a trip, but it does happen, even in or just out of more safety oriented countries. It isn't the initial problem that is the problem, it's how the crew communicates with and handles the emergencies of 2 Kiwis, 1 Brit, 2 Spaniards, 2 Dutch, 2 Germans and 1 from France.

I'd have a hard time with that myself, but thankfully Europeans seem to have far better language skills than most American Captains, and I'm sure most Indonesian Captains.

 

[Wingy]

In typically Indo fashion there seems to be some inaccuracies in what exactly happened and how many were on board - 17 missing after boat strikes reef | The Jakarta Post

I dont see the communication issue as a major issue here - all Indo boats taking tourists out have English speaking captains and almost all Dive Ops in Indo like their DMs to be multi lingual. Indonesia has a shocking record of ferry and boat sinkings...one day earlier and 77 rescued from a ferry on fire 76 Passengers Rescued from Ferry Fire on Lombok Strait.

---------- Post added August 18th, 2014 at 04:41 PM ----------

Still two missing the others were rescued this afternoon from what I can gather from news sources here. The Kiwi couple said they clung onto the hull for 18 hours before making a swim for the nearest island where a volcano was erupting at the time. The others had swam to the island earlier in the night the NZ couple interviewed said they had drank their own urine and ate leaves as they were extremely dehydrated - the Mermaid LOB was apparently on scene quickly and assisted in searching for survivors and taking them to Bima. Lets hope the other two (nationalities not mentioned but the germans, dutch, french and english have been found) have the same luck.

 

[DiveExploreIndonesia]

And two more people still missing.....

BBC News - More found, two missing after Indonesia tourist boat sinks

 

[sphyrnidus]

While just as bad, the info in this bulletin is outdated as all 5 Dutch people were found. The two missing are both Spanish males.
One of the Dutch people was a Dutch medical student. She swam to an island and was in the water, swimming for 8 hours. She undertook this together with another lady. After reaching the uninhabited isle, they had seen from the ship, they had to wait all night before they were picked up. The weather was reasonable, though there were quite strong waves the lady said. The isle is inhabited by Komodo Dragons!
Apparently the ship had engine trouble and sailed on a reef, due to the strong winds.
I read that some agencies had cancelled trips this weekend because of the weather forecast.

 

[Searcaigh]

Apparently there was no communication system on the boat to call for help, probably a mobile phone or two but useless if nothing in range to connect to.

From yesterday's BBC report

BBC News - More found, two missing after Indonesia tourist boat sinks

 

[sphyrnidus]

There are 2 threads on this.
The other one is over here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/indonesia/489934-tourist-boat-sinks.html
In response I said:
While just as bad, the info in this bulletin is outdated as all 5 Dutch people were found. The two missing are both Spanish males.
One of the Dutch people was a Dutch medical student. She swam to an island and was in the water, swimming for 8 hours. She undertook this together with another lady. After reaching the uninhabited isle, they had seen from the ship, they had to wait all night before they were picked up. The weather was reasonable, though there were quite strong waves the lady said. The isle is inhabited by Komodo Dragons!
Apparently the ship had engine trouble and sailed on a reef, due to the strong winds.
I read that some agencies had cancelled trips this weekend because of the weather forecast.

 

[rjk75]

The Bali Times article (Two Injured as Tourist Dive Boat Sinks off Komodo) near the bottom says, "It was not clear if the guests would be refunded for their trip, or if their accommodation in Bali would be paid for by the dive firm," yup, that would be my first concern as I'm jumping into the abyss