Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, Jan 2 (EFE).- The search for three Spaniards missing in Indonesia entered its eighth day Friday, a week after the tourist boat they were traveling on sank and killed one.
Two other Spanish women survived the incident. All were members of the same family.
Personnel involved in the operation told EFE that Friday could prove decisive for the mission, due to the deployment of powerful sonar equipment and the narrowing of the search area.
“We are using four sonar systems to search for the wreck on the seabed. We hope the wreck will be visible today so we can dive down to it and find the three victims trapped inside,” Asfan Sulhasan, an official with the National Search and Rescue Agency and one of the mission coordinators, told EFE.
One of the sonar systems, which can detect objects at depths of up to 200 meters and create three dimensional maps of the seabed, arrived Wednesday from Jakarta and was deployed Thursday.
Relatives of the missing people went Friday to the port of Labuan Bajo, from where part of the operation is being co-ordinated, to thank the teams for their efforts and wish them luck.
Authorities decided on Thursday, when the seven days or minimum period required by law for search missions in the country had been completed, to extend the operation at least until Sunday after reviewing data gathered in previous days.
Rescue teams also found more debris from the sunken boat Thursday, including pieces of the vessel’s wood, ropes and cushions.
In addition, through the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs, search teams obtained the coordinates of a mobile phone signal from one of the missing people between Saturday and Sunday, when contact was lost.
“The coordinates correspond to different points, south and north of Padar Island, near where the boat sank, which indicates movement. We believe it could be among floating debris or in a part of the vessel that remains suspended and is being dragged by underwater currents,” Budi Widjaja, who is assisting the families of the missing, told EFE.
The tourist boat KM Putri Sakinah sank in waters off Padar Island, in Komodo National Park, at around 8:30pm local time on Dec. 26, 2025 (12:30 GMT), after which a search using speedboats was launched.
The three Spaniards who remain missing are Fernando Martín, a former soccer player and coach of Valencia CF’s women’s B team, and two minors. One is Martín’s son and the other is the son of Andrea Ortuño, one of the survivors of the shipwreck and the mother of both the other rescued minor and the deceased victim whose body was found Monday.
Both adults had recently married.
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