All of the missing passengers were found after an Indonesian ferry sank with 15 people dead

Search and rescue personnel reported that all of the missing passengers had been found after a wooden boat capsized off the shore of Sulawesi island in Indonesia on Monday, killing at least 15 people. According to a statement from the local office of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, the boat sunk with 48 passengers aboard just after midnight (1700 GMT on Sunday).

According to the statement, six passengers were saved and sent to a hospital for treatment, and the reason of the sinking was being looked into. Head of the local search and rescue organization in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, Muhamad Arafah, said in the statement that all the fatalities had been recognized, along with the other 27 passengers.

Arafah claimed that the operation had been “declared finished and closed,” despite the agency having previously stated that 19 people were missing and that searches were still underway.

According to Wahyudin, a spokeswoman for the local rescue agency who goes by one name like many Indonesians, the boat was traveling across a bay between the communities of Lanto and Lagili in Central Buton regency on Muna island.

The passengers had previously been listed as missing, the official told AFP, since they had “rescued themselves and once they got on land, they went home.”

According to Wahyudin, the ship was a wooden passenger boat and not a ferry as was previously thought. He declined to acknowledge claims made by the local media that the boat was full.

According to Indonesian media, residents traveled for a local holiday and boarded an overloaded boat that sank as it crossed the bay on the way back.

The real number of passengers on a boat in Indonesia often differs from the manifest. The rescue organization posted pictures of six dead corpses at a nearby hospital that were draped in sarongs and set out on tarpaulins.

In the almost 17,000 island country in Southeast Asia, where marine mishaps are common, residents depend on ferries and tiny boats to get around despite lax safety regulations.

On Sumatra island, a ferry capsized in one of the deepest lakes in the world in 2018, killing over 150 passengers.

Additionally, a ferry carrying more than 800 passengers grounded off the coast of East Nusa Tenggara province in May of last year. The vessel was detained there for two days before being freed. There were no injuries in the collision.