Bid to retrieve 200 bodies in sunken ferry called off

JAKARTA: Indonesia said yesterday it was calling off a two-week operation to retrieve the bodies of nearly 200 passengers thought to have drowned in one of the world’s deepest volcanic lakes.

The overcrowded wooden ferry capsized during a storm on June 18 in Lake Toba, which is around 450m deep, as travellers were heading home after the Eid holiday.

Eighteen passengers survived, three were confirmed dead and nearly 200 are missing.

The operation to find the ferry to retrieve the victims has faced numerous technical and logistical hurdles – dangerous currents and cold, murky water far deeper than any scuba diver can go – in a lake that has never been completely surveyed.

Video footage taken last week using a remotely operated underwater vehicle showed human remains, motorcycles and ropes from the ferry at a depth of 450m.

Rescue spokesman Muhammad Yusuf Latif confirmed that the search operation would end, adding that an official statement would likely be made today.

“We’ve already had face-to-face discussions with the families of the victims on the difficulties faced in the field and reasons why we won’t continue; why we want to end it,” Latif said.

“They understand why we’re stopping,” he said.

Muhammad Ilyas, the head of the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, said the wreckage was found on Saturday, but the remotely operated underwater vehicle used to find it had also become stuck in ropes connected to the ferry.