Indonesian rescue workers and police carry a survivor from a ferry sinking in the Java Sea after arriving in Makassar in Indonesia's south Sulawesi province yesterday. Fourteen survivors of an Indonesian ferry sinking arrives in Makassar after drifting on a life raft for nine days, a top search and rescue official said yesterday. - Reuters
MAKASSAR, Indonesia (Reuters):
Fourteen survivors of an Indonesian ferry sinking have been rescued after drifting on a life raft for nine days, surviving on cookies, seaweed and rain water, a rescue official and survivors said, yesterday.
The ferry sank in the Java Sea with more than 600 aboard after it capsized in rough seas around midnight, on December 29, 2006.
"They were found yesterday, 15 of them. One of them died this morning. He had been in critical condition. They were found by a ship called KM Mandiri, and they are now being transported to Makassar," Bambang Karnoyudho said, referring to the main city in the south of Sulawesi island.
The latest survivors were found some 480 km (300 miles) from the accident site early on Sunday morning, according to Karnoyudho, who is head of the national search and rescue agency.
Sugiono, a 35-year-old survivor being treated at the Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital in Makassar, said he was looking forward to being reunited with his family.
Dying from thirst
"We were helped into a life raft on the night the ferry sank. After that the wave took us, we didn't know where," said Sugiono, from the town of Kudus on Java island, who uses one name like many Indonesians.
"Food was a bit better because we had cookies in the lifeboat, but for drink we had to wait for rain."
Sigit, 24, from Yogyakarta, said there was enough food for three to five days and after that they also had to eat seaweed.
At least 248 survivors have been found after the sinking, some clinging to wreckage or floating in life vests, and others on life rafts.
Rescuers have had difficulty reaching some survivors spotted from the air because of rough weather, and said strong winds and currents were taking survivors and the dead hundreds of kilometres from the accident site.
