More evacuated in sunken ship, missing plane still unfound in Indonesia

Rescue teams on Friday have evacuated more victims of the ferry that sank on Saturday, but still have no clues of the location of the commercial plane with 102 on board that missed on Monday, Indonesian Transport Minister Hatta Rajasa said.

Rajasa told a press conference after meeting Indonesian President Susilo Bamabang Yudhoyono at the State Palace that nearly a half of the 628 people on board the ferry have been evacuated.

"At least 241 people have been saved from the sunken ferry, eight of them were dead, (but) until now, our searching efforts ( of the missing plane) have not given a result yet," he said.

The searching involved more than 2,000 people from Indonesian Navy, Air Force, Army, police and rescue teams, as well as scores of Singaporean crews.

Eight navy warships, one ship, one helicopter and nine planes have been deployed in the searching efforts, said Rajasa.

For the ferry, the focus of the effort was on the waters north off Madura island of East Java province, he said.

During the meeting with President Susilo, the minister said that the president instructed to continue searching efforts despite the rules stipulates that the efforts must be stopped after the seventh day.

"According to the procedure the rescue will be stop after seven days, but President Susilo said to continue regarding the experience after the tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, in Aceh province, where the survivors were still found after the third week of the disaster," said Rajasa.

The ferry with a capacity to carry 800 passengers was sailing from Central Kalimantan to Semarang, Central Java when it sank at midnight on Saturday.

Ferry is among the favorite sea transport of more than 17,000 islands in Indonesia, due to its cheaper price than air transport.

The Boing 737-400 commercial plane operated by Adam Air Corp., lost contact at 15:07 Jakarta time on Monday, official of the company said.

Singapore's radar has informed two possible spots of the plane crash on land and sea waters, but the minister said that in Makassar city, eastern Indonesia, only one spot on the ground was indicated.

The operation for the searching of the plane is carried out in Tator regency of West Sulawesi province and Mamuju regency of South Sulawesi province, and in the waters of Majene of the island, said Hatta.

Adam Air is one of more than dozens budget airline companies that have established in the country since 1999.

Source: Xinhua