Hundred missing after capsize

An aircraft flying over the site where a fishing boat carrying up to 200 asylum seekers capsized about 200 kilometres north of Christmas Island has spotted ‘‘more bodies in the water’’, as authorities revised down the number of survivors rescued to 109.

‘‘This is looking increasingly grim by the hour,’’ said Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare yesterday afternoon.

He said a plane that flew over the site had seen more debris and life jackets.

‘‘Some [of them] are floating on their own, some of them that have people wearing them, and they have identified more bodies in the water,’’ Clare said.

‘‘It’s pretty rough water out there . . . We are still in that critical window.’’

Clare said it appeared the suspected asylum seekers on the steel-hulled fishing boat were all from Afghanistan and that there were between 90 to 100 people still unaccounted for.

Three men have been confirmed dead and the 109 people – including a 13-yearold boy – were rescued after an Australian Customs and Border Protection surveillance plane spotted the boat ‘‘in distress’’ 109 nautical miles south of the Indonesian island of Java about 5pm on Thursday, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said.

Christmas Island administrator Steven Clay told ABC Radio three of the survivors were admitted to hospital on their arrival.

‘‘They were transferred to the jetty, put into buses and transferred up to the Phosphate Hill immigration facility,’’ he said. ‘‘They’re getting medical checks up there. They appear calm and they were just sitting quietly. The objective is to save as many lives as possible.’’

Clare said the water temperature was 29 degrees Celsius and conditions were at ‘‘sea state three’’, meaning there were slight waves of heights between 0.5 to 1.25 metres.

‘‘People can survive out there up to 36 hours if they have either life jackets or they have debris to hold on to,’’ he said.

‘‘So we are in that critical window where there is a chance more lives can be saved.’’

AMSA spokeswoman Jo Meehan said the survivors and the three bodies have arrived at Christmas Island on HMAS Wollongong.

‘‘Over all they are rather healthy, with some injuries,’’ Meehan said about the allmale survivors, who were wearing life jackets and found within a five-nautical-mile radius of the capsized boat.

All the passengers were believed to be men except for the boy, Clare said.

Indonesia’s search and rescue authority, BASARNAS, is leading the search in the country’s search and rescue zone, about 110 nautical miles north-west of Christmas Island. Assisting them are AMSA and RAAF search and rescue planes and four merchant vessels.

The on-scene Australian search is being co-ordinated by HMAS Larrakia.

The latest report from surveillance aircraft was that the upturned hull of the boat was still visible, Meehan said.

It was not known what caused the boat to capsize, she added.

‘‘At this stage details are sketchy but what is apparent is there has been a large loss of life at sea,’’ Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters from the UN environment conference in Rio de Janeiro after speaking with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

‘‘This is a very distressing and tragic incident.’’