Head of the Maumere City SAR Office Mexianus Bekabel stated on Thursday that a joint team in Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai, had headed to the accident site to conduct its operations to rescue the passengers.
During its journey to Seraya Island, the unnamed motorboat sank on Thursday at 11:40 a.m. local time, about 5.61 nautical miles from Labuan Bajo Port on the western tip of Flores Island, according to Bekabel.
The unnamed motorboat was an inter-island passenger vessel serving the Labuan Bajo-Seraya route.
"The SAR team has headed to the incident site to carry out rescue and search operations for the passengers. This operation was carried out after coordinating with the potential SAR (team) in the area to conduct the operation jointly," Bekabel, who serves as the SAR Mission Coordinator (SMC), remarked.
The joint team included five personnel from the Maumere SAR office, two from the West Manggarai SAR Post, one from the West Manggarai harbormaster's office, one personnel from the Navy, and one from the Labuan Bajo Water Police.
Earlier, on February 28, the Kupang Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) had warned residents of the potential for high waves in parts of the East Nusa Tenggara sea area over the next few days.
"Waves, with a height of 1.25-5 meters, or medium category, and 2.5 to four meters, or the high category, can potentially arise in most sea areas in the province, which should be watched out for (especially) sailing ships," Head of the Maritime Meteorological Station of BMKG Tenau Kupang Syaeful Hadi explained.
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Translator: Benediktus J, Kenzu
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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