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Hundreds Killed as Ferry Sinks off Indonesia`s Coast

A ferry sunk Friday off the coast of Java, Indonesia with 600 of its passengers and crew members aboard. A senior official in the Indonesian Navy expressed concern for the lives of the passengers as only 59 passengers have been rescued at this point. The vessel`s documentation indicated that the ferry had 545 passengers aboard, along with 57 crew members, but officials say that over 800 passengers may have been aboard. The reason the ferry sunk is still unclear, an investigation into the cause of the disaster will conducted.

Local navy commander, Col. Yan Simamora, said the ferry went under around midnight local time, during a fierce storm, while en route from the city Semarang in Java to Kumai in Borneo. The area is still plagued by harsh weather conditions, which are making the search and rescue difficult. Waves in the area have reached up to 6 meters, which have been a contributing factor to the low number of survivors found by the search crew, 59.

Simamora told a local radio station that he is not optimistic regarding the chances of finding more survivors at the disaster site approximately 300 Km from Jakarta, Indonesia`s capitol. Indonesia is made up of over 10 thousand islands, and many of its citizens use ferries to travel from island to island, as this mode of transportation is relatively cheep and reliable. Many islanders have no other mode of transportation as an alternative.