Amazing tales of tourists ' survival as Lombok ferry sinks

[zwiebel]

Two 'foreign' tourists remain missing after a ferry sank travelling between Lombok and Komodo Islands, near Bali. But the remaining people -who come from Indonesia, New Zealand, Germany, Netherlands and Spain - have had an unbelievable escape.

With only one lifeboat, 10 tourists swam for SIX hours to reach the safety of a nearby island - only to find there was an erupting volcano there, and no water! They'd already been in the water about 12 hours. When they were eventually found, there really didn't seem much hope of finding other survivors.

' “We waited until midday on Saturday. We were five kilometres (three miles) from the coast - there were many big waves separating us from the coast.

“People started to panic... Everyone took the decision to swim to the closest island, five kilometres away, where there was an erupting volcano.”

Homassel said the group swam for six hours before arriving at the island, Sangeang, where they survived Saturday night by drinking their own urine and eating leaves. '

But those who stayed in and around the lifeboat were finally found today, after wait around 48 hours. Sadly, a Dutch man and an Italian woman are still missing.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/18/two-britons-swim-six-hours-boat-sinks-indonesia

Many more photos at the Daily Mail link here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-boat-carrying-20-foreign-tourists-sinks.html

 

[zwiebel]

I meant to add, the second group of 15 survivors were only located today.

'The other survivors who stayed with the lifeboat, who were rescued on Monday, were in the water for about 40 hours.

Dutchman Jan van Ommen said people took turns to spend time in the lifeboat and float in the water with their lifejackets.

"So we had this system, and in the beginning it was not easy... but later on the system went on, and we changed and changed," Mr van Ommen told AFP. '

(AFP is Agence France Press (English lang): http://www.afp.com/en/search/site/Lombok/)

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28826352

 

[zwiebel]

I'm not finding any info or updates on the 2 missing passengers - Dutch man and Italian woman. I'm going to ask one of our posters who I know has the language skills, for help.

 

[ZaZara]

I'm not finding any info or updates on the 2 missing passengers - Dutch man and Italian woman. I'm going to ask one of our posters who I know has the language skills, for help.

The Dutch Foreign Office has no information about a Dutchman alledgedly missing.
The tourists missings are two men from Spain.
One of them has been identified, the name of the other is still withheld in the press, his name is alledgedly José.
Families of both have been informed. One family has traveled to Indonesia.

http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2014/08/21/actualidad/1408629086_342605.html

Translation:

Víctor García Montes, born in Seville 43 years ago and solicitor in the courts of Madrid, is one of the two tourists missing after the sinking of a boat sailing between the Indonesian islands of Lombok and Komodo. The Government of Indonesia has officially confirmed to the Foreign Affairs that the crew members of the sunken cruise have declared that the two missing are Spaniards, according to diplomatic sources in Spain.

(...)

"They are making every effort to try to locate the two Spaniards safe and sound ," reported the OID (Diplomatic Information Office).

 

[zwiebel]

Thanks so much ZaZara.

 

[Meryl12]

These are the dangers of traveling in countries that do not have our safety standards. They had only ONE LIFEBOAT!! They were not carrying any survival rations, etc I could go on and on!!
I have looked back at some of the situations that I have been in when I have been travelling and thought how lucky I was that nothing too serious happened. Not very many countries have our very high safety standards. I think they rely on luck. Only one life boat is relying on luck, no emergency/survival rations (water) is relying on luck.
I have never been to Bali. I know a lot of people who have and they said it was very nice 30 years ago, but it is not the same now, it has been exploited.

 

[ZaZara]

El Mundo reports:
http://www.elmundo.es/andalucia/2014/08/21/53f6090eca474150088b457d.html

Translation:

The families of Victor García and his friend prepare an expedition for early Friday to the island where last Monday night, fishermen sighted two men who had come ashore from the sea.

While local authorities claim that the island has been "whipped" and no trace of them was found, the family believe that the two missing men have "a lot of experience in the mountains and in the sea", and in all probability "have entered the island, in the forest, to look for water."
"They are very well prepared, both physical and mentally," says Victor's family.

 

[zwiebel]

'Indonesian authorities called off their search for two Spanish men Saturday, finding no sign of them one week after their tour boat sank in central Indonesia.'

'A team with three rescue boats and three fishing vessels combed the seas around several islands in the area for the final day of the search, to no avail.
"We found no sign of the men at all. There are many fishermen in the area looking out for them, and they will continue to do so, even though we've ended our official search," local search and rescue chief Budiawan, who goes by one name, told AFP.'

http://www.afp.com/en/news/indonesia-calls-search-spaniards-boat-sinking

 

[ZaZara]

http://www.elperiodico.com/es/notic...rescate-espanoles-naufragio-indonesia-3467774

The Indonesian authorities intend to continue collaborating in the search for the two Spaniards missing after the shipwreck, as both families understood this evening. Nevertheless they are still awaiting official confirmation of this "encouraging" news. This was reported by Fernando de Miguel, brother of Jorge, one of the men missing after the sinking of a ship with tourists a week ago in the southeast of the Indonesian archipelago.

The families of Jorge de Miguel and Victor Garcia first received the news on Saturday that the Indonesian authorities had terminated the search operation for the two Spaniards, in compliance with the protocol of the country, as was officially reported by the spokesman of the Agency for National Disaster Mitigation in Indonesia, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

However, they soon received word from Spanish sources suggesting that the Indonesian government plans to continue putting in resources to proceed with the search for the disappeared, for a time that they have not specified to them. The families are now awaiting to the fulfilment of that option.

 

[ZaZara]

TEINTERESA.ES reports
http://www.teinteresa.es/mundo/rastro-Victor-Jorge_0_1199881371.html

Translation:


The families of Víctor García Montes, born in Seville 43 years ago and solicitor in the courts of Madrid, and his friend Jorge de Miguel, both disappeared after sinking of a boat sailing between the Indonesian islands of Lombok and Komodo, have found no evidence or trace giving reason to believe that these castaways "are or have been" on the island of Sangeang, as reported by a spokesman for families following the recent work of tracing on this island.

(...)


Given the slow progress of the 'lifeboat', several of the castaways detached from it to reach the island by swimming on their own, a move that was followed by a second group, all of these were rescued after reaching the south of this island, of Sangeang.
Alledgedly Victor Garcia Montes and Jorge Montes remained nevertheless with the boat in the water, but when a fishing boat came to the rescue of the remaining castaways, it was discovered that they had disappeared. Thus began to strengthen the hypothesis that on the approach of nightfall, they had also decided to reach the island by swimming alone.

However, these sources indicate that at that time, a strong current derived by meteorological adversities could have dragged them both northward towards open waters.

BBM

This is not looking good.
:notgood:

 

[ZaZara]

EL PAIS reports:
http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2014/08/28/actualidad/1409229129_517068.html

Translation:


The Indonesian authorities have terminated on Thursday the search for the two Spanish search missing in the wreck of a tourist cruise, according to the ambassador in Jakarta, Francisco José Viqueira Niel. The Asian government has adopted this measure after suspending the rescue on Saturday and subsequently resuming it on Sunday at the request of the Spanish government - including a call from Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo to his counterpart


Viqueira explained that Indonesia's armed forces "have already covered the entire area" where they might find the two Spaniards, Victor Garcia and Jorge de Miguel, of 43 and 48 years of age respectively. The diplomat stressed that in the last three days search "did not show anything, not even the life vests that they were wearing". Nevertheless he added that some fishermen found at nearly 20 kilometers from the shipwreck a duffel bag belonging to Jorge de Miguel, as it contained his ID along with other belongings. Yet, the ambassador nuanced: "It is nothing definitive, as it he may have dropped it at a time when he was in the water."

BBM

One family has already returned to Spain, the other family continues the search.