Jakarta/Valencia (EFE).– Indonesian rescue teams will resume on Sunday the search for a Spanish man and three of his children who have been missing since Friday following the sinking of a tourist boat near Padar Island, east of Bali, authorities said.
In a statement, Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency (SAR) clarified that the missing are a Spanish man and three of his children, two boys and a girl, and corrected earlier information that had included the man’s wife among those unaccounted for.
“The survivors were the wife and one daughter,” SAR said, adding that five other people were rescued alive, including four crew members and a tourist guide.
The four missing were identified as Fernando Martín Carreras, a former footballer and coach of Valencia CF’s women’s B team, and three of his children.
Indonesian emergency services told EFE that Carreras is 44 years old. He had been traveling with his wife, Andrea Ortuño, and their four children. Ortuño and one of the daughters survived the incident.
Rescue teams said search operations have been hampered by waves of up to 1.5 meters, strong currents around Padar Island and torrential rain that has reduced visibility.
Preliminary information indicates that the boat’s engine malfunctioned, causing the vessel to sink.
The family is from Valencia, in eastern Spain, and Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in contact with their relatives.
Enrique Ortuño, the grandfather of the three missing children and father-in-law of Carreras, acknowledged that the chances of finding them alive are slim.
“My daughter and my granddaughter were thrown from the boat because they were in a higher part. They fell into the sea and were rescued,” Ortuño told EFE on Saturday.
“My three grandsons and my son-in-law may have been trapped inside the boat, which broke apart and sank quickly.”
According to diplomatic sources cited on Saturday, rescue operations could continue for three to four days.
The tourist vessel, KM Putri Sakinah, sank around 8:30 p.m. local time on Friday (1:30 p.m. GMT), prompting an immediate search involving boats and diving teams.
Maritime accidents are frequent in Indonesia due to aging infrastructure, vessel overloading, weak enforcement of safety regulations and adverse weather conditions. Boats remain a primary mode of transport across the archipelago, which comprises more than 17,000 islands and has a population exceeding 270 million. EFE
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