15 fatalities were found and 19 others were still missing after a ferry capsized during a 20-minute trip on Sulawesi island, Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency reported Monday from Jakarta.
According to a statement released by the agency on Sunday night, only six of the plane’s forty passengers were confirmed to have survived the crash.
Survivors are being cared for at local hospitals, and the bodies of the deceased have been identified and returned to their relatives, according to Muhamad Arafah of the local SAR office.
The rescue organization released photos of bodies lying on the floor of the local hospital, wrapped with fabric.
It was yet unknown what caused the sinking that happened at around midnight.
On Muna island, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of Kendari, the capital of Southeast Sulawesi province, the boat was transporting passengers across a distance of just 1 kilometer (less than half a mile). The trip was expected to take no more than 20 minutes, connecting two small settlements on opposite sides of Mawasangka Bay.
The agency reported that search teams were diving near where the ship went down and patrolling the area in rubber boats.
Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, and ferries are a prominent form of transportation there; however, accidents are regular due to loose safety rules, which allow vessels to be overloaded without proper life-saving equipment.
