Sonar used in hunt for Indonesia ferry victims
the castle, told AFP.
“Stories have it that it was used to beat drums when people came through the main gate,” he said.
A guard patrolling the castle complex found the tower in ruins late Wednesday, he said, adding that no one was injured in the incident.
The tower had already been severely damaged by the 2016 quakes, which killed 267 people and injured more than 2,800 others.
The castle was devastated during a civil war in the late 1800s, interest payments between 2010 and 2014.
Dozens of Ocean Bank employees have already been convicted for corruption, including former director Nguyen Xuan Son who was sentenced to death for embezzlement and economic mismanagement last year.
Former PVN executives have also not been spared.
Ex- chairman Dinh La Thang, who also served on Vietnam’s powerful Politburo, was convicted in two separate graft trials last year and sentenced to a total of 31 years in jail.
He is currently appealing one of the sentenc-
Vietnam has vowed to polish its tarnished reputation as one of Southeast Asia’s most corrupt countries. The anti-graft campaign has
Indonesian authorities yesterday turned to cuttingedge sonar technology as they search one of the world’s deepest lakes for victims of a deadly ferry disaster.
Search teams hope the equipment, on loan from Indonesia’s navy, will help find the overloaded boat which sank Monday on Lake Toba, a picturesque tourist destination in Sumatra.
Just three passengers have been confirmed dead so far, while 18 were rescued.
But official estimates list 193 others— including children—as missing, which has raised fears that many bodies are trapped inside the ferry at the bottom of the lake.
The accident could be one of Indonesia’s deadliest maritime disasters.
Despite a massive search operation involving some 400 personnel, the vessel has still not been located after four days.
Sonar technology uses sound pulses to detect and pinpoint underwater objects. The advanced equipment rolled out for the search effort is powerful enough to work at the lake floor, authorities said.
“Our search target for the ship is at a depth of 500 metres,” Budiawan, an official at Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, told AFP.
“( This equipment) can reach 600 meters.”
Lake Toba, which fills the crater of a supervolcano that exploded in a massive eruption tens of thousands of years ago, is 500 meters deep in parts, hampering the search effort.
It covers some 1,145 square kilometers. A lack of progress in the hunt for victims has sparked anger among some of the hundreds holding vigil by the shore as they wait for news about missing loved ones.
The captain and owner of the boat, Tua Sagala, along with two crew are being questioned by police.
The traditional wooden boat could have been carrying five times the number of passengers it was built to hold, along with dozens of motorcycles, officials have said.
The vessel is believed to have been operating illegally with no manifest or passenger tickets and authorities have struggled to pinpoint the exact number onboard when it went down in bad weather.
They have relied on reports from survivors and the families of missing relatives who may have been on the doomed vessel.
Survivors have said the boat began shaking as it struggled to navigate strong winds and high waves about halfway into the 40-minute trip from an island in the middle of the lake to shore.
Members of the Indonesian rescue team yesterday prepared to deploy sonar equipment, on loan from Indonesia’s navy, to help search for missing passengers at the Lake Toba ferry port in the province of North Sumatra, after a boat capsized on June 18. Indonesian authorities on June 22 turned to cutting- edge sonar technology as they search one of the world’s deepest lakes for victims of a deadly ferry disaster.