Surabaya: Surabaya Search and Rescue (SAR) Agency confirmed, Friday, the successful rescue of 143 passengers from the Motor Vessel (MV) Santika Nusantara, conflagrated by fire while sailing in the waters of Masalembu, East Java, Thursday evening.
Tholib Vatelehan, the agency’s spokesman, informed journalists that the local fishermen's fishing boats were deployed to rescue 54 of the 143 onboard this ill-fated roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) vessel on Friday.
Vatelehan was quick to point to the total figure of rescued passengers having surpassed the figure listed on the official manifest.
The manifest indicated merely 111 passengers onboard the ill-fated ship constituting 100 adults, six children, and five infants, Vatelehan remarked.
"Thus, lack of clarity still exists on the exact count of passengers that MV Santika Nusantara had onboard," he stated.
As of Friday, the SAR workers, facilitated by two SAR vessels, continued their search efforts to locate passengers still afloat in the waters of the sea around the accident site.
Also onboard MV Santika Nusantara were 84 vehicles ravaged by fire in the Masalembu waters while sailing from Surabaya, East Java, to the South Kalimantan city of Banjarmasin on Thursday at around 8:45 p.m. local time. (Antara)
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