Captain faces jail over Indonesian ferry disaster

INDONESIA: The captain of a ferry that sank off Sulawesi island last week leaving up to 335 people dead is facing five years in jail for negligence, Indonesian police said Monday.

Only 35 people survived and nine bodies have been found since the 700-tonne Teratai Prima sank on January 12 in heavy seas whipped up by a tropical storm in the Makassar Strait with up to 370 passengers and crew on board.

“The ferry captain, Sabir, faces a maximum jail sentence of five years,” South Sulawesi district police chief Ruslan Nicolas said.

He said Sabir, employed by ferry operator PT Bunga Teratai, was in police custody and would be charged with negligence causing the death of another person.

National police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said the captain would be charged with ignoring a storm warning when he set sail from Pare-Pare on the afternoon of January 11 for the overnight journey to Samarinda, Borneo island.

He would also be accused of setting sail in a ferry that exceeded its passenger capacity, Nataprawira added.

“Those are his acts of negligence that will be proven soon in a trial,” he said.

Officials have said the weather was calm when the ferry left port but about 10 hours later it was hit by a severe storm with waves up to four metres (13 feet) high.

Survivors said most of the passengers were asleep at the time and the vessel sank so quickly that they had little chance of escape.

The ferry’s manifest showed some 250 passengers and 17 crew were aboard but officials said the ferry may have been carrying 103 people more than those listed.

Pare Pare, Wednesday, AFP