Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA) - Indonesia's search and rescue team (SAR) on Sunday managed to rescue 26 people including foreign tourists, after a passenger ship, that they were on, suffered engine failure in the Lombok Strait, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Province.
"Several victims are foreign nationals of India, Germany, Spain, Australia, the United States, and Italy, while the rest are from Indonesia," Head of the Mataram SAR Office Nanang Sigit PH said here on Sunday.
He said that his office received a report from the chairman of the Karya Bahari Cooperatives, on Saturday (4/6), at 8:48 p.m. local time regarding AL II KAI GT 171 ship which suffered an engine failure in the Lombok Strait waters.
"We received a request for evacuation of 26 people. Eleven of them are crew members and the rest are passengers," he said.
The engine of the ship that departed from Benoa Harbor, Bali, to Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara, had failed in the Lombok Strait waters since Saturday (4/6).
The Mataram SAR office deployed personnel from Lembar Harbor, West Lombok District, using the Rescue Boat 220 Mataram to evacuate the tourists and crew members.
"The distance to the ship's location is 21.75 nautical miles, that's according to the coordinates given by the captain of the ship," he said.
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The SAR team managed to find the AL II KAI GT 171 ship, on Sunday (5/6) at around midnight local time. The ship was found in the western waters of Nara Bay, North Lombok District, after being carried away by currents to the south. Despite the poor condition, the ship was able to sail at very low speed.
The ship managed to anchor at Nara Bay at 2:45 a.m. local time. Everyone was evacuated safely.
"Because it's close, we directed it to Nara Bay with supervision to ensure a safe position," he said.
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