Yogya seminar discusses disaster recovery

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Participants at an international seminar on post-disaster reconstruction currently being held in Yogyakarta are looking to establish a framework for post-disaster recovery efforts and disaster mitigation based on experience gained from major disasters around the world.

Along with papers presented during the two-day seminar, the new framework will be published as an international registered proceeding to be made available to government agencies and the wider public.

Speaking at a press conference, chairman of the seminar's steering committee Gembong Prijono, said domestic and international experts as well as government officials and donor agencies involved in post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction had been invited to attend the event, scheduled to finish Tuesday.

Some 200 domestic participants are in attendance, along with 15 foreign participants from Japan, Thailand and the Netherlands.

"By comparing our experiences we will try to come up with a framework for long-term recovery planning that will not just include physical reconstruction efforts but also social and economical ones," Gembong said.

Past experiences, including from Aceh after the 2004 tsunami and Yogyakarta and Central Java after the 2006 earthquake, have shown several deficiencies in post-disaster recovery efforts, Gembong said.

Among them, he said, included long-term planning for recovery and integrated rehabilitation and reconstruction, the management and coordination of recovery activities, the effective implementation of mitigation measures and building guidelines and a lack of attention to long-term socio-economic recovery.

"At the seminar we aim to define key problems and bottlenecks encountered in current recovery processes and share lessons learned from past experiences in those areas," Gembong said.

"Another aim is to propose actions to be taken to enhance the effectiveness of future disaster recovery processes," he said.

The newly approved Law No. 24/2007 on disaster management, Gembong said, stipulates that the post-disaster recovery phase is to be further formulated in another government regulation.

"The results of the seminar hopefully will provide effective input for the formulation of the regulation," he said.

Hosted by the Jakarta-based Urban and Regional Development Institute (URDI), the aim of the seminar was to compile the best practices to rebuild disaster-affected areas as well as devise disaster mitigation strategies for long-term recovery.

"Recovery efforts for major disasters so far have been lacking long-term strategies and are too focused on physical reconstruction," URDI's director Budhy Tjahjati Soegijoko said.

She stressed the need for effectiveness and sustainability in reconstruction programs so that affected communities do not just recover from disasters but are more responsive to potential disasters in the future.

Indonesia has been rocked by major disasters since a 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated Aceh, leaving some 170,000 people missing or dead.

High-profile recovery efforts by the government and local and international agencies have raised questions about the effectiveness and sustainability of rebuilding affected communities and preparing them for possible future disasters.

Prior to the seminar, participants were taken to Klaten (Central Java) and Bantul (Yogyakarta), two of the worst-hit areas after the 2006 earthquake, to witness the progress of recovery efforts.

Massive waves pound beaches in Bali, Java

The Jakarta Post, Bandung, Yogyakarta

Massive waves have pounded Indonesia's coastlines since Thursday destroying fishing boats and shacks and creating widespread panic in Bali where thousands of tourists are holidaying for the long weekend, Reuters said Friday.

The weather pattern is unusual and not in-line with annual forecasts, officials said. No casualties have been recorded to-date.

Parts of the southern coast of Java island and Sukabumi area in West Java have been affected by water coming into villages and forcing residents to evacuate.

Weather officials have warned fishermen against sailing off southern Java and authorities have forbidden people from surfing at Kuta beach until the weather subsides.

Some officials and media reports have referred to the weather phenomenon as a regular set of tidal waves that have been exaggerated because the moon is in line with the sun, Reuters said.

Waves as high as four and five meters have struck Bali's Jimbaran resort area, destroying more than 100 fishing boats and forcing the popular restaurant strip to be evacuated.

At Kuta beach in Bali, three- and four-meter-high waves also forced tourists to desert the area.

The Water Tourism Safety Agency office in Bali asked its workers on Friday to take special preventive measures because the waves were expected to continue into Sunday.

"We are working hard. We have fielded 80 workers to keep tourists from coming to the beach," Bali's water safety agency coordinator I Made Suparka told Antara.

"Many of the workers will keep their eyes on tourists using 12 towers along the 20-km Bali beach."

The guards have also asked vendors selling food, beverages and handicrafts to abandon the beaches and avoid the dangerous waves.

Bali Police spokesman Sr. Comr. AS Reniban told marine tourism operators and all fishermen to stay out of sea.

On Friday the waves destroyed fishing houses on Kedongan and Jimbaran beaches in Bali, as well as other houses and food stalls in the popular Pangandaran beach in Ciamis, West Java.

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Bandung, West Java has asked tourists spending the long weekend in the area to avoid beaches.

Agency head Hendri Subakti said the tidal waves might reach as far as 100 meters inland and would continue for the next three days.

The tides have struck West Java southern coastal areas, from Sukabumi to Pangandaran, damaging hundreds of food stalls, kiosks and houses.

Much damage has been recorded at Pelabuhan Ratu beach in Sukabumi.

Hendri said hundreds of kiosks on the beach, which is located 160 km from Bandung, were swept away by the four-meter-high waves.

"We have asked tourists and fishermen to abandon the sea to avoid casualties," Hendri said.

"This is dangerous because we had no indication the waves would strike."

Hendri however offered another explanation for the tidal waves. He said they were a natural phenomenon and an accumulation of monsoon weather near the Indian Ocean adjacent to Australia.

He said the wind associated with the weather had reached speeds of 25 knots per hour.

Nana Sukarna of the Sukabumi regency disaster mitigation coordination unit said 61 houses and food stalls in Pelabuhan Ratu beach had been swept away by the tides.

"Currently, hundreds of families have been evacuated to the representative office of Pelabuhan Ratu regent," Nana said.

In southern Garut, the tides have damaged 13 houses, according to Garut Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Eko Budi Sampurno.

"The sea suddenly rose and reached 100 meters inland," he said.

In Yogyakarta's Samas beach, two-meter-high waves have destroyed more than 10 houses and food stalls, as well as damaging approximately 60 fishing boats.

Head of Yogyakarta's Samas beach fishermen association, Rudjito, told The Jakarta Post on Friday the waves had made people panic.

"There were no strong winds or any storm -- but suddenly the waves struck.

"This kind of phenomenon is the first I've experienced ever. Nature is no longer friendly," he said.

Violent waves have also made tourists abandon West Sumatra's busy beach in Padang since Thursday, with the seawater flooding roads located 10 meters away from the beach.

-- Syofiardi Bachyul Jb. contributed to the story from Padang, West Sumatra

Two killed in typhoon in East Java

SURABAYA (Antara): Two people were killed and many houses and buildings were damaged after a typhoon hit Mayangan and Kademangan in Probolinggo, East Java, at around 5 p.m. on Monday.

Probolinggo city police chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Topan Herinoto said the strong wind swept the area only around 10 minutes but the damages it had caused were quite huge.

The wind accompanied by quite heavy rain blew away many roofs, damaged buildings and uprooted trees, he said.

He said two people were killed in the disaster, one after being struck by lightning and another after a wall fell upon him.

He said he did not know yet how many had been wounded in the incident. "Police officers are still conducting evacuations," he said.

Powerful storm damages homes in Yogyakarta

Slamet Susanto and Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta, Magelang

The storm that hit Yogyakarta on Sunday damaged at least 1,173 houses and dozens of public facilities, while forcing more than 1,000 residents out of their homes.

Data from the local Natural Disaster Mitigation task force showed Monday 57 people were wounded in the storm, 44 of whom are still being treated in the city's hospitals.

The Yogyakarta municipality has provided 600 tents as emergency shelters, and erected a public kitchen on Jl. Dr. Sutomo.

Mayor Heri Zudianto said the number of damaged houses would likely rise because the disaster task force had not yet completed reports of material losses.

"We will provide assistance to people whose houses were destroyed in the storm from the emergency fund (which comes from) municipal and provincial budgets," said Herry on Monday.

Gondokusuman district bore the brunt of the storm with 762 houses damaged. Danurejan district had 202 houses damaged, Umbulharjo 165 houses and Pakualaman 44 houses. Dozens of public facilities and offices were also damaged, including the Lempuyangan railway station and several military buildings on Jl. Dr. Sutomo.

The storm also heavily damaged the SMP 15 junior high school. Most of its roof tiles were blown away by the wind and parts of its walls collapsed. Students have not yet returned to school.

"We will erect school tents to immediately restore learning activities," said head of the Education Development Affairs at the local education office, Syamsuri.

Gondokusuman district head Dirzam Wimono said his office would immediately survey the affected areas and mobilize all the resources at his disposal.

"We cannot estimate losses yet. Besides the damaged houses, 15 of our residents were injured after being hit by falling roof tiles and wooden beams. They are still being treated in hospital," said Dirzam.

Around 2,000 security personnel from various military and police units have been helping cleanup debris and uprooted trees along the roads.

"They clean up the mess in the day and secure the neighborhood at night," said Yogyakarta police chief Sr. Comr. Haka Astana.

Meanwhile in Magelang, Central Java, the Sunday landslide in Tanjungsari and Pasangsari villages in Windusari district has claimed 10 victims. Seven of them have been found, while search and rescue workers have not located the other three residents after being hampered by heavy rain.

Tanjungsari village head Jamaluddin said the incident occurred when dozens of residents were repairing an irrigation canal and widening the village road.

"The canal and road are located on top of a cliff which suddenly collapsed and dragged the residents down, burying them," said local resident Widodo.

Residents said they were working on the road and canal after receiving funds from the government. The weather was clear Sunday morning as villagers started work at 7 a.m. The landslide occurred at 10 a.m.

"We quickly tried to save our friends who were dragged and buried, but had to stop due to heavy rain," said Widodo.

Several villagers said that it was raining at the site on Saturday night. The landslide was likely due to unstable soil conditions.

Magelang Regent Singgih Sanyoto and local legislature speaker Ahmad Labib immediately went to the site of the landslide and provided Rp 750,000 in cash assistance victims and their families.

After String of Disasters, Indonesians Ask: Why Us?

By SETH MYDANS, The New York Times

Published: February 11, 2007

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Feb. 9 — Too many shopping malls in the city. Too many squatters on the riverbanks. Too many villas on the southern hillsides. Or a curse hovering over the president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Filthy water still fills much of the city a week after the start of the worst flood in decades, draining slowly away during dry spells, then topped up again by new rain storms. Officials say 80 people have now died, mostly by drowning and electrocution.

Read More ....

Disaster-fatigue and the importance of a Plan B

Manggi Habir, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Within a relatively brief period, we have witnessed a series of tragic disasters, both natural and man-made. This has ranged from the Aceh tsunami to the Adam Air plane crash and more recently to the Jakarta floods. This begs the question as to what we have learned from these painful experiences?

Unfortunately, we must admit not much. With limited resources and awareness, we have often ignored disaster prevention measures in our everyday routines. One notable trend, however, is that with a weak first line of defense, there is a growing importance of contingency disaster plans, or what companies often refer to as plan B (as opposed to the normal operating plan A). And with bird flu just around the corner, our plan B abilities will be truly put to test.

Preventive measures are, in the long run, more cost effective than remedial measures that kick in during and after a disaster. This is intuitive and common sense. On an individual level, better to buy and wear a motorcycle helmet than pay a brain surgeon to reassemble your head. For an airline, better to spend on safety measures than damage your reputation and forego potential revenue from customers switching to safer airlines.

For an oil company, it is better to ensure that safety standards are adhered to (especially when drilling in close proximity to heavily populated areas and public transportation facilities), than to have to pay for damages and compensation. For a provincial government, it better spending on early warning systems and going through practice runs, rather than having to relive another Aceh tsunami or Yogyakarta earthquake tragedy.

And for a municipal governor, better to spend on improving urban canals and drainage systems rather than losing political capital because of floods, should one have further political ambitions.

But, unfortunately, preventive measures are not without cost, while it is always hoped disasters will happen to somebody else, and thus are not a certainty. And with the lack of awareness of the need for preventive measures, even periodic building evacuation exercises remain a rarity.

Companies with the resources normally incorporate preventive measures in their business plans. They do this by identifying critical risk areas in their businesses, and correspondingly install ways to address and minimize these risks. In the absence of insurance, losses are quantified, should mishaps occur, and funds are set aside to cover these potential losses.

Minimum industry safety standards are set and adhered to with proper government or industry enforcement carrying sufficient penalties for non-compliance. Not easy in a developing environment, and to be fair even developed ones find this difficult.

It is like having to exercise, eat a balanced diet and have regular medical check-ups to avoid paying huge hospital bills later on. We know it is good for us, but never have the urgency or time, until unfortunately it is too late. Human nature is such that we tend to ignore the negatives and instead focus on the positives. It must be our survival instinct.

Indeed, it is our weakness in implementing and enforcing preventive measures in our daily routine that leads to the prominence of plan Bs. This is inevitable in an increasingly riskier world, with increased volatility brought about by, among other things, globalization, more frequent and extreme climatic changes and technological innovations. So what constitutes a credible plan B?

This column is not meant to be a treatise on how to do a plan B. Suffice to say that a plan B should have adequate funding, a realistic action plan, an organization with a credible chain of command to the very top (to get visibility, a buy-in from everyone and decisive decision making) and a focal point of communication to ensure accurate and consistent information is made public.

But a plan means nothing if it is not practiced. So it is vital that we do periodic practice runs. Plan B's ideally should remain a work in progress and, after each practice run, constantly fine-tuned to ensure credibility and effectiveness. Tsunami and earthquake practice runs are important exercises to go through. It is sort of like having an army in peacetime. We want them to be battle-ready and continually practice for a war, which we hope will never happen.

This brings me to bird flu, which has already claimed lives and could escalate further into a more deadly pandemic. Experts all agree it is just a matter of time before we have a pandemic. So, in this case, the early warning systems have already been switched on, flashing yellow warning lights. Unlike the recent tsunami and earthquakes, we have the luxury of a bit more time and thus both preventive and contingency plans need to be reviewed and put into action simultaneously.

Preventive measures include ensuring we are vigilant and report any dead birds to the authorities, and when the virus is identified ensuring we cull all fowl and animals (with proper compensation) that could transmit the disease within the surrounding area.

Identify key areas where the deadly virus can breed, like crowded wet markets where people and animals converge and try to ensure as clean an environment as possible. There has been heartening news of a bird flu vaccine being developed in Australia with some success. Although it remains to be seen how soon it can be safely used.

On the plan B remedial side, hospitals have been designated to cater for bird flu patients and isolation wards have been established. Aside from the hardware, it is important to coordinate the dissemination of information to ensure the public is made more aware about bird flu, the symptoms, the dangers and where to go for help should they identify it in their respective communities. Ways to deal with affected relatives and communities to ensure that the disease is isolated and contained is also important.

With all that has happened, it is no wonder we are suffering from a bit of disaster-fatigue. And it is now that our leaders, instead of pointing fingers at each other, should start showing real leadership. It is an opportune time, especially with the general elections only two years away.

The writer is a financial and business analyst and a lecturer at Tarumanegara University in West Jakarta.

BMG data is often not accurate: Aircraft association

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Aircraft Association (INACA) says data from the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) are often not reliable, thus pilots do not trust the information from the agency.

Elshinta radio station quoted a senior official in INACA on Monday that pilots must seek information from a more reliable agency due to such a problem in BMG.

"When BMG predicts, for example, our visibility is only few meters, the fact is different," he said during a hearing with the National Commission on Transportation Safety (KNKT.)

He called on BMG to renew and calibrate its weathermeasurement tools to give a more reliable information.

First finder of jetliner wreckage to get cash from VP

MAKASSAR (Antara): A fisherman Bakrie, 53, who found part of the right tail of the missing Adam Air jetliner in Mallusetasi waters, South Sulawesi would get cash of Rp 50 million (US$5,490) from VicePresident Jusuf Kalla for his finding.

Antara quoted Friday Commander of Makassar Air Base First Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto that he, on behalf of the Vice President, would give the money to Bakrie on Saturday.

Bakrie finding was very precious to the search activities of the missing jetliner as the search and rescue teams were previously clueless despite the deployment a number of high technology search vehicles.

Related Story: Fishermen find parts of jetliner

Indonesia ferry survivors rescued

The rescue has refocused attention on the search effort

BBC News

Fourteen survivors of a ferry sinking in Indonesia have been rescued from the sea nine days after their boat sank in a storm off Java, officials have said.

They were picked up in a life raft by a passing cargo ship 500km (310 miles) from where their ferry sank.

A fifteenth person died soon after the group was rescued near Bali.

The Senopati Nusantara car ferry was carrying more than 600 people from Borneo to Java when it sank. Poor weather hampered rescue efforts.

The 14 survivors have been taken to Makassar on the island of Sulawesi where port officials said they were very weak and dehydrated.

Strong currents

They survived by drinking rainwater and eating food supplies stored on the life raft, rescue officials said.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson, in Jakarta, says the news of the survivors has refocused attention on the rescue effort.

The search has been extended to the waters around the island of Bali, as stormy weather and currents have carried survivors hundreds of kilometres to the east of where the ferry went down.

About 235 survivors have been rescued so far, found on life rafts, small islands and oil rigs in the Java Sea.

A simultaneous search for a missing Boeing 737 passenger jet has revealed large metal objects on the seabed off the west coast of Sulawesi.

The plane disappeared from radars a week ago carrying 102 people.

Transport officials investigating the ferry disaster have been blaming the rough weather for the sinking.

One said last week she suspected that high waves had entered the ferry's car deck over the door, making the vessel unstable, the Associated Press news agency said.

Very few bodies have so far been found. A navy spokesman said hundreds of bodies were probably trapped on the lower decks of the ferry, AP reported.

Warnings keeping fishermen in port

The Jakarta Post, Cirebon, Semarang, Ambon

Thousands of fishermen in Cirebon, West Java, who have been unable to go out to sea because of extreme weather will receive cash aid from the government.

Weather warnings from the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency have also affected thousands of fishermen in Central Java, as will as disturbing ferry services in parts of the country.

Cirebon Regent Dedi Supardi said his administration had set aside Rp 1.03 billion to assist 12,800 fishermen in the regency.

Each fisherman will receive Rp 20,000 for each day they are unable to go out to sea because of extreme weather warnings from the meteorology agency.

"The money has been taken from the regency's disaster budget. Each fisherman will get Rp 20,000 a day ...," he said Friday.

He said the administration had formally banned fishermen from leaving port on those days the meteorology agency issued extreme weather warnings.

"The agency informs us that weather in the Java Sea will continue to be bad through Monday. The decision (to ban fishermen from leaving port) was made to prevent any accidents," he said.

He said the amount of compensation was based on the regency's official monthly minimum wage of Rp 600,000. He added officials would begin distributing the money through village units starting Friday.

"Since we prevented fishermen from going out to sea for four days (from Friday to Monday), it means they're entitled to Rp 80,000, or Rp 20,000 a day," Dedi said.

News of the government assistance was welcomed by fishermen.

"The amount might not be much but it will help us survive while we can't fish," said Samuji.

Weather warnings also have affected more than 150,000 fishermen in Central Java, with more than 82,000 fishing boats stuck in docks for the past week.

The head of marketing and business development at the Semarang office of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, Sartono Tirtodihardjo, said Friday a fishermen's cooperative in Central Java, Mina Baruna, had already distributed 711 tons of rice to assist fishermen in the province.

He said the cooperative had a Rp 2.9 billion budget to help fishermen in 16 regencies and cities during difficult times. He said the budget came from a 0.5 percent fee collect from fish auctions in Central Java.

Sartono said if the cooperative's budget proved insufficient, the provincial administration would step in to provide help for fishermen.

Meanwhile, Ambon Port in Maluku prohibited ferries and small ships from leaving the port Friday due to worsening weather.

On Tuesday, two small vessels sank in the waters of Maluku, killing five people. Two others remain missing but bad weather has hampered search efforts.

"We are not allowing ships to set sail because the weather is really bad," the port's administrator, Abraham Lesnussa, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He said waves were reaching a height of two meters. "We've warned residents to stay alert if they want to travel by ship. They should pay attention to weather conditions and not insist on traveling in bad weather."

Several ferries traveling between Hunimua Port in Salahutu district, Central Maluku, and Waipirit Port in Kairatu, West Seram regency, did continue services Friday.

This despite the provincial transportation office instructing all ports and ferry companies to halt services until the weather improved.

"Maluku waters are very vast and it would be hard to search for victims if there was a disaster because there is no first-class rescue fleet," said the office's head, Benny Gasperz.

Psychics consulted in search for plane

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar

Searchers slaughtered a buffalo in a traditional ceremony and consulted psychics Friday, the fourth day after an Adam Air jetliner went missing over Sulawesi.

Meanwhile, thousands of soldiers and police continued a massive search over land and water on the southern part of the island for the missing aircraft.

Bad weather continued to hamper the operation and as of late Friday there were still no signs of the Adam Air Boeing 737-400 or any of its 102 passengers.

"None of our search efforts on land, sea and air have yielded results," said the commander of the Hasanuddin Air Base in Makassar, Commodore Eddy Suyanto, adding the operation would continue Saturday.

Flight KI-574 vanished from radar screens an hour after departing from Surabaya on Monday afternoon for Manado. Reports said the pilot had reported heavy winds just before all contact with the aircraft was lost.

In Jakarta protesters grouped in the Solidarity for Transport Victims group called for the resignation of Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa. Demonstrating in front of his office, they demanded he be held accountable for other accidents including the sinking of the Senopati Nusantara ferry last Friday off the north coast of Java. At least 400 passengers are still missing from the ferry, but rescuers expressed optimism of finding more survivors after locating another 15 passengers Thursday.

A relative of five people on board the Adam Air flight said Hatta should be put into police custody. "Just arrest him. I don't need compensation, I just want them (the survivors) found," he told Metro TV.

Psychics are also helping the search, with one, a Mama Lauren, saying the aircraft had crashed in Lake Tempe in South Sulawesi's Wajo regency.

In Majene, West Sulawesi, a search and rescue team enlisted the help of local shamans and slaughtered a buffalo in a traditional ceremony, where food offerings were made to the spirits of the jungle and prayers were offered to ancestors to "clear the path" for the operation.

"When we come to a new place we have to greet the spirits here," Majene military chief Zakariya told AFP.

"This is the local custom practiced here for generations to clear the path when we start our search. It is just seeking permission to search this area."

"You can see that even when using very hi-tech devices and enlisting the help of Singapore, we have still not found anything. So this is an alternative measure that we are using," he said.

On Thursday Singaporean Air Force soldiers joined the search, and on Saturday a six-member team from the United States is expected in Sulawesi.

Antara reported the team includes members of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, Boeing, the Federal Aviation Administration and a representative from General Electric.

Commodore Eddy said all information from the public was being checked.

Meanwhile, rumors about the fate of the plane spread around the country via mobile phone text messages, with some suggesting the aircraft blew up in mid-air after terrorists detonated a bomb or sabotaged the plane.

A number of the passengers' families were still camping out at Makassar's airport on Friday but others had given up waiting and returned home.

On Saturday, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who heads the National Disaster Management Coordinating Board, is scheduled to arrive in Sulawesi and observe first-hand the search and rescue operation.

Indonesian ferry survivors recall fight for life as search extended

The International Herald Tribune (AP), 5 January 2007

SURABAYA, Indonesia: Ahmad Rifai thought he was going to die as huge waves hurled his life raft around the Java Sea following last week's ferry sinking in central Indonesia. But for five days he desperately gripped the boat, too scared to sleep, until he washed ashore.

"I remember those nights when I was adrift in the middle of the dark night with storms, rain, lightning and high waves," said Rifai, a 45-year-old plantation worker, as he recovered Friday in a hospital in the coastal city of Surabaya.

"There was nothing I could do, I could only keep chanting, 'God is great, God is great.'"

Almost 630 people were on board the Senopati Nusantara when it sank before midnight after being pounded by towering waves for several hours on a trip from Borneo to the main island of Java.

More than 230 people, including the captain, have so far been rescued. Just eight corpses have been recovered.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the search on Friday to continue for the time being, saying survivor stories from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami showed that people could stay alive for up to three weeks on rafts in the country's tropical climate.

Survivors have been found on life rafts, clinging to debris or on beaches on remote islands after washing ashore. They have been found farther away from the site of the sinking each day because of ocean currents.

Col. Jan Simamora, head of the search and rescue mission, said ships and planes were scouring the sea near the resort island of Bali, some 700 kilometers (430 miles) west of where the ferry sank.

No survivors have been found, though, since Rifai and 14 others in his tiny raft ran aground Wednesday on an island hundreds of kilometers (miles) away.

Rifai said during his time at sea he saw no rescue teams. The men in the raft spotted land three times, but high waves prevented them from using their hands to paddle the vessel ashore. They survived on rain water before washing ashore.

"We just went where the waves took us," he said.

Indonesia has been wracked in recent weeks by seasonal storms that have triggered deadly landslides, flooding and at least six maritime accidents in different parts of the sprawling archipelago. A jetliner with 102 people on board disappeared in heavy winds and is still missing.

As the ferry sank, Rifai said he saw two adults and two children hugging each other on deck before jumping into the sea, still holding on to each other.

"It seemed they wanted to die together," he said, adding the image stayed with him during his time on the life raft. "Thank God we managed to get in a raft."

Another survivor said thinking about his wife and children gave him strength.

"I tried to remember what they did each day," said Ansari, who goes by a single name. "I could not imagine dying and leaving no one to look after my family."

Indonesia air loss mystery deepens

• Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta correspondent

• January 04, 2007, The Australian

FOUL weather forced search and rescue teams out of the skies yesterday as the mystery deepened over what became of Adam Air Flight KI 574, the budget jet that disappeared between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sulawesi on Monday with 102 people on board.

Equally baffling was how the Boeing 737-400's wreckage was erroneously reported discovered, complete with 12 survivors, by villagers in a mountainous region of West Sulawesi on Tuesday.

Rescue teams dispatched to the area trekked for 10 hours along mud-soaked trails only to find a furious village chief who denied having alerted authorities to the plane crash.

Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa, fending off accusations of incompetence and calls for his resignation, blamed the early incorrect information on the head of Lanud Hasanuddin airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Airport chief Eddy Suyanto was caught on the hop delivering the latest crash position updates to national search and rescue co-ordinators, and inadvertently let slip the location when quizzed by reporters, Mr Radjasa said.

However, no one was prepared to explain why the information was not checked in the first place, with the effective loss of at least a full day's search time. The search was widened to include the Makassar strait on the assumption pilot Refri Agustian Widodo might have sought a safe route around a dangerously large cumulonimbus cloud mass and 40-knot wind gusts.

Mr Suyanto said nothing had been found and military search aircraft had been grounded as monsoonal storms worsened.

An irritated President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono summoned the key players to a crisis meeting in Jakarta last night, including Mr Radjasa, who was forced to return from his damage-control holding position in Makassar.

"The Government has lied to the people. Hatta must be investigated," said Rendry Lamajidu, a senior member of the national parliamentary committee on transportation.

As well as the time wasted trekking to the wrong location, the long delay in launching a search for the jet when it first disappeared from radar screens shortly after 3pm local time (6pm AEST) on Monday was a crucial failure, Mr Lamajidu said.

"There were no direct efforts in the first 24 hours, when there could still have been passengers to save. Now it's not possible there's anyone left," he said.

Upper house Speaker Hidayat Nurwahid conceded human error was probably responsible for a string of transport disasters in recent days, including the capsize of a ferry north of Java with the loss of hundreds of lives, but cautioned against laying all the blame on the minister.

"It's not entirely his fault," Mr Nurwahid said, as he called for a thorough investigation into the transport sector. Deregulation of the Indonesian airline industry in 1999 produced a host of low-cost, low-quality carriers, notorious for their poor service and safety and more akin to long-haul bus travel than normal airlines.

But aeronautics professor Djoko Sardjadi of the Bandung Institute of Technology said the excessive age of most of Indonesia's fleet of Boeing 737s - many between 20 and 25 years old - should not be a problem "so long as we understand that the planes are old and they are not forced beyond their operating limits".

Another ship sinks in East Nusa Tenggara's waters

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (Antara) : Another ship has sank as it was hit by high waves in the waters of East Nusa Tenggara province, killing one of its four crew members.

The Sius Tokan cargo ship sank Tuesday, but a search and rescue team could locate it only Wednesday, said Sentianus Medi, an official responsible for disaster in East Nusa Tenggaraprovince Wednesday.

"Search and rescue team saved three crew members and found the body of a dead crew member," he was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

Two of the three crew members are ship captain A. Rochim and his assistant Fadli Tepen, but Anton Kellen, was killed during the incident in an area close to Tanjung Boang in Semua Island, Kupang regency.

A fishing boat also went on missing in the waters last Saturday, killing one of the fisherman.

Bad weather was blamed over several other ship accidents, including the Senopati Nusantara, which sank after being pounded by heavy waves for more than 10 hours as it neared the end of a two-day journey from Kalimantan Island to Central Java.

The ferry, which was built in Japan in 1992, had a capacity of 850 people. Officials say bad weather was the cause of the accident.

Expert pessimistic rescuers to locate missing plane

JAKARTA (Antara): Multi-media expert Roy Surya expressed his pessimism that search and rescue team would be able to find the location of an ill-fated plane, which has gone missing since Monday evening.

The plane went missing on its way from East Java provincial capital of Surabaya to North Sulawesi provincial capital of Manado.

He said the signals of emergency locator transmitters (ELTs), which could guide rescuers to locate the plane wreckage would have disappeared at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

He added lifetime of ELT battery is only 48 hours.

"If ELT signal disappeared, the searching of the wreckage will be more difficult because it only depends only on manual-visual method," Roy was quoted by Antara news agency as saying Wednesday.

According to Roy, there are two ELTs -- portable and fixed -- in every plane, which are placed in cockpit and in the tail of the plane.

Meanwhile, rescuers expanded their search for a missing jetliner to the sea Wednesday, one day after senior Indonesian officials erroneously said the Boeing 737's charred wreckage had been found along with a dozen survivors.

Rescue teams spent more than 10 hours Tuesday hiking through slippery forest paths in a mountainous region of Sulawesi's western coast but found nothing, prompting authorities to expand their search Wednesday to include the sea, Bambang Karnoyudho,the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, told The Associated Press.

Three navy ships set sail soon after sunrise in the Makkasar Strait and five Air Force planes took to the skies, he said, searching for signs of wreckage in the water and in a large section of south and western Sulawesi.

On Tuesday, top Indonesian aviation, military and police officials - and the airline itself - said the plane had been found in a remote part of Sulawesi. They said that 90 people on board had perished, but that the remaining 12 may have survived.

Descriptions were vivid, with officials saying corpses and debris from the plane were scattered over a 300-meter (327-yard) area of forest and jagged cliffs - highlighting the often unreliable and chaotic nature of disaster relief efforts in theworld's largest archipelagic nation.

But later in the day, they said they had been wrong and no wreckage had been found.

Crashed AdamAir plane has yet to be found

MAKASSAR, South Sulawesi (Antara): Hasanuddin Air Force Base chief Cmdr. Eddy Suyanto declared Tuesday that AdamAir Boeing 737-400 that went missing Monday has yet to be found.

"Earlier reports saying that the ill-fated airplane was already found with 90 victims and 12 survivors are not true," Eddy -- flanked by Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa -- told the media.

"Reports about the wreckage and victims found around Rangoan village in Polewali Mandar, West Sulawesi came from local villagers," he said.

The reports were then verified by sending a SAR team including a number of high ranking officials including South Sulawesi Police chief Insp. Gen. Aryanto Boediharjo and West Sulawesi Governor Anwar Adnan Saleh.

Also being deployed were 745 soldiers and police officers to the believed crash site.

The SAR team, however, did not find the wreckage and victims. They have been ordered to return and to search in other area of Rantepao in Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi.

Eddy suspected the false information was being circulated by certain irresponsible parties.

Both Eddy and Hatta also requested the media to confirm all information through the Air Force Base commander as SAR mission coordinator.

Eddy said an Air Force Boeing 737-200 Surveillerreconnaissance plane would be dispatched Wednesday morning to comb Rantepao area.

The airplane combed Majene and Polewali Mandar areas for three and a half hours but did not find any signs of the ill-fated plane.

Search workers also deploy two helicopters from the National SAR Agency and police, three NC-212 Aviocars and three Nomads patrol airplanes from the Indonesian Navy.

Lion Air skids at Ambon airport

AMBON, Maluku (Antara): A Lion Air MD 90 aircraft skidded Tuesday at the runway of Pattimura Airport in Ambon at 8:14 a.m. local time (6:14 a.m. Jakarta time) but there was no damage or fatalities.

A Lion Air executive, however said the plane did not skid and merely missed the turning point.

The airplane -- plying the Jakarta-Surabaya-Makassar-Ambon route -- was carrying 110 adult and five children passengers approached from west of the runway eastward. It slipped some eight meters from the runway edge. Passengers were reportedly to scream hysterically.

The airplane was then towed to the apron. The pilot in command was Capt. Imbuh Sasmita with Saiful as first officer. There were also four flight attendants aboard the flight JT 790.

Bad weather was believed to be the cause of the incident because it was raining hard with strong wind when the airplane landed.

Separately in Jakarta, Lion Air spokesman Hasyim Arzal Al Habsyi said the airplane only missed the turning point and did not skid.

"It is common if an airplane misses the turning point and we cannot call it an incident. The media should be more careful about using these technical terms," he said.

Hasyim said the plane missed the turning point because of heavy rain and strong wind with a speed of 10 knots.

Officials: Indonesian Jet Crash Kills 90

U.S. Embassy Says 3 Americans Aboard Plane

POSTED: 3:35 am EST January 2, 2007, The Associated Press.

MAKASSAR, Indonesia -- Rescuers found the smoldering wreckage Tuesday of an Indonesian jetliner that went missing during a storm, and officials said 90 people were killed but 12 survived in the country's second major disaster in days.

Monday's crash followed the sinking of a passenger ferry late Friday in Indonesia's Java Sea that left 400 people dead or missing.

The Boeing 737 operated by local carrier Adam Air crashed in a mountainous region of Sulawesi island in the northeast of the sprawling archipelagic nation, said local police Chief Col. Genot Hariyanto.

The 17-year-old plane carried six crew and 96 passengers, including 11 children. The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said three Americans were aboard, but there was no immediate word on whether they survived or on their identities.

Adam Air spokesman Hartonom, who goes by just one name, said 90 people were killed and that there were 12 survivors.

Officials said rescuers were trying to evacuate survivors, but there was no immediate word on their conditions.

"The plane is destroyed and many bodies are around there," Hariyanto said.

The plane was on a domestic flight from Java island to Sulawesi when it disappeared late Monday about an hour before it was due to land amid very bad weather. The captain managed to send out two distress signals, said national aviation chief Ichsan Tatang said late Monday.

Hundreds of people gathered at Manado airport, the aircraft's destination.

Some collapsed when they heard the news 90 people had died, while others angrily banged on the door of the Adam Air office there, demanding information, witnesses said.

"I have heard on the television that 12 people survived, I just hope that one of them is my father," said Ridwan Lamani.

Justin Tumurang's twin sister was on the plane. "Being a twin, we share almost every feeling. I felt something was not right, and it grew worse. Now I feel pain," she said.

Weeks of seasonal rains and high winds in Indonesia have caused several deadly floods, landslides and maritime accidents, including the sinking of the ferry.

The passenger ship capsized about 650 miles from the area where the Adam Air plane disappeared, and naval ships and helicopters have since scoured the choppy tropical waters for ferry survivors.

However, officials said bad weather on Tuesday was preventing rescuers from resuming the search.

Loved ones also gathered in the Central Java port town of Rembang, awaiting word about the ferry, many losing hope as bloated bodies continued to wash to shore.

Search and rescue operations were continuing, with nearly 200 survivors found, but a temporary morgue also was being set up at a port close to where the Senopati Nusantara went down. Hundreds of body bags were being readied.

"I am tired of crying," said Sipan, who goes by only one name, as he waited at the local hospital for news of his son. "Dead or alive, I will accept his destiny. It is up to God. All I can do is keep waiting."

With more than 17,000 islands, boats are one of the main modes of transportation in Indonesia. But people are increasingly taking to the skies, thanks in part to the emergence of budget airlines.

Adam Air is one of at least a dozen budget airlines that have emerged in Indonesia since 1999, when the industry was deregulated.

The rapid expansion has led to cheap flights to scores of destinations around the sprawling nation, but has raised some safety concerns, since many of the airlines are small and lease planes that are decades old.

The aircraft's last inspection was on Dec. 25 and it had flown 45,371 hours, Tatang said.

Last year, an Adam Air jetliners lost all communication and navigation systems for four hours during a flight between the Indonesian capital Jakarta and Makassar on Sulawesi Island, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing at a small provincial airport.

A day later, the plane flew to a regional airport with proper maintenance facilities without being given the go-ahead by aviation authorities, a major violation of national and international safety rules.

In September 2005, a Mandala Airlines Boeing 737 crashed after take off on Sumatra island, killing 143 people.

In September 1997, a Garuda Airlines Airbus crashed into a jungle-covered mountain slope in Sumatra, killing all 234 people aboard. Two months later, a Silk Air Boeing 737 jet crashed into a river on Sumatra, killing 104 people.

Adam Air, which began operations in 2003, was founded by Agung Laksono, the speaker of Indonesia's house of representatives and the company's chairman.

Contact lost with Indonesian jet

BBC, 1 January 2007

Contact has been lost with a passenger plane flying between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sulawesi, aviation officials have said.

The Boeing 737-400 has 96 passengers and six crew on board.

The Adam Air plane reportedly left Surabaya in Java at 1300 local time (0600 GMT) on a two-hour flight to Manado in northern Sulawesi.

Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said it had sent out a distress signal and rescue teams had been sent to find it.

It was believed to be near Mamuju, in southern Sulawesi, 750km southwest of its destination, but may have come down in the sea.

Severe storms

It was not clear why contact was lost, and there was no information as yet on the condition of the plane or its passengers, Mr Radjasa said.

Contact was lost at 35,000ft, when the plane was an hour away from its destination, a ministry official added.

An air traffic controller told local TV the aircraft had hit "very bad" weather and would have run out of fuel if it had not already landed.

The area has been subjected to high winds and severe storms in the last few days. About 400 people are still missing after a passenger ship sank off Java on Saturday morning.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Jakarta says Indonesia has a chequered flight safety record including several major crashes.

Last year near 150 people were killed when a plane crashed into a busy road shortly after taking off from Medan on the island of Sumatra.

Adam Air, a privately owned low-cost airline based in Jakarta, began operations in 2003.

All rescued after ferry sinks near Bali

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian search and rescue teams have found all 11 passengers and crew from a ferry which sank off the resort island of Bali, reports said Monday.

Nine were rescued by a passing cargo ship on Monday after they were found floating in their lifejackets in the Java sea, AFP reported citing ElShinta radio.

Two others had managed to make it to Pantai Bukti beach on the northeast of Bali on Sunday.

All 11 survivors, including six crew, were being treated at a hospital in Gresik, in East Java.

The "Sinar Baru" was en route to Lombok from the Javanese port of Surabaya when it sank after strong currents and huge waves hit the vessel.

"Sea water had flooded the motor of the Sinar Baru and water started entering the ship. At the time the chief mechanic was asleep," a local government official told ElShinta.

"The ship was already near the port but it started to sway violently and sank just before reaching it," the official said.

It was the third Indonesian ferry to sink in less than a week.

A ferry with some 600 people sank late Friday in a storm off Java while a ferry carrying 100 people from Sumatra island to Bangka island capsized late Thursday, killing at least three people.