One person is dead and 23 are missing after a passenger boat sank on the way to an island in Indonesia, authorities said Thursday.
KM Nurul Salsa carried 70 passengers and crew, as well as copra, cattle and motorcycles, when the ship left the port in Jampea Island on Wednesday morning.
Authorities received a report Wednesday afternoon that the ship's engine had failed and it was sinking about 43 nautical miles (79 kilometers) from its destination port in the Selayar Islands in South Sulawesi Province.
Rescuers located 46 survivors and were searching for the 23 missing passengers on Thursday, according to Muhammad Arif Anwar, head of the Makassar Search and Rescue Office, who said the effort had been hampered by poor weather.
“The challenge is the weather, with waves 2 to 2.5 meters high at the search site. The winds are also strong. That’s the main challenge,” Anwar said.
The search involved personnel from the Indonesian National Armed Forces, National Police, fishermen and residents.
Passenger boats are a common form of transportation in Indonesia, an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands. Lax safety standards and problems with overcrowding frequently result in accidents.
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Associated Press journalist Edna Tarigan in Jakarta contributed to this report.
