By NINIEK KARMINI / AP 12.30.06, 6:33 AM ET
A crowded Indonesian ferry broke apart and sank in the Java Sea during a violent storm that sent towering waves over its deck, and the vast majority of the 600 passengers were still missing a day later, officials said Saturday.
Raging seas have hampered rescue efforts and about 14 hours after the disaster, just 66 survivors had been found, many drifting in lifeboats, officials said. No bodies had been found, leaving more than 500 passengers unaccounted for.
"We all just prayed as the waves got higher," said Cholid, a passenger who survived by clinging to some wooden planks but who lost his 18-year-old daughter.
People fought over lifejackets as the boat capsized, sending cars crashing into one another in the cargo hold, he said.
"I was going upstairs to try to help my daughter, but the ship suddenly broke up and I was thrown out. I lost her," said Cholid, who like many Indonesians uses one name.
Waves of up to 16 feet crashed over the deck of the ship around midnight Friday during the final leg of a 48-hour journey from the island of Borneo to the main island of Java, said Slamet Bustam, an official at Semarang port, the ferry's destination, where hundreds of distraught relatives and friends waited for news about their loved ones.
"We're afraid many have died," Bustam said.
Two naval ships were searching the area, but poor visibility was hindering their search.
Authorities struggled to come up with an accurate number of those on board. Earlier, Bustam said there 850 passengers, but later lowered the number to 600. Local media said that between 500 and 800 were on board.
Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa put the number of passengers at 542, citing the passenger manifest. Ships in Indonesia, however, often carry far more passengers than recorded, making it hard for authorities to say with accuracy how many people were on board.
In a final radio contact, the captain informed port authorities that the ship was severely damaged and capsizing, said local navy commander Col. Yan Simamora.
Worried family members gathered at the main office of ferry operator PT Prima Fista, weeping and demanding details about the fate of their loved ones.
"I am waiting for my mother, auntie, sister and nephew who were on their way to celebrate New Year's Eve at my house," said Yulis, 25.
The ferry ran into trouble 24 miles off Mandalika island, some 190 miles northeast of the capital, Jakarta, while en route to Semarang on Central Java from the port of Kumai on Borneo island.
Seasonal storms have wreaked havoc across Indonesia in recent days, unleashing flash floods and landslides that have killed more than 145 people and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes on Sumatra.
Earlier Friday, a different vessel carrying around 100 people capsized in bad weather off the coast of northwestern Sumatra, killing three and leaving 26 missing, Radjasa said.
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