11 European tourists and 1 local rescued after speedboat sinks in Indonesia. Boat captain missing

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian rescuers found alive 11 European tourists and a local crew member who went missing after their speedboat apparently broke apart and sank in rough weather off a bay on Sulawesi island, officials said Saturday. Search teams continued looking for the vessel’s captain.

The vessel departed a dive resort in Tojo Unauna regency of Central Sulawesi province on Friday morning bound for Marisa Port in the neighboring Gorontalo province but failed to arrive as scheduled, said Heriyanto, Head of the Gorontalo Province Search and Rescue Office.

A local tour guide reported the missing boat to the search and rescue office at 3:40 p.m. on Friday, prompting an immediate search operation, said Heriyanto, who, like many Indonesians, uses a single name.

“Concerns arose when their speedboat had not arrived by afternoon,” Heriyanto said. “We immediately launched a search mission overnight.”

Five Dutch nationals, three Germans, a Czech man, a Belgian man, a French woman and two Indonesian crew members were on board, according to Indonesian authorities.

There was no immediate comment from the national embassies of the tourists.

Heriyanto said dozens of search and rescue teams were deployed in a search operation covering approximately 300 square nautical miles of waters along and around Tomini Bay, a renowned marine tourism destination, with dozens of islands dotting its vast waters, based on the tour boat’s route projections. A thermal-imaging drone and diving equipment were also being used in the search, he said.

Indonesia’s meteorological agency forecast generally clear skies in the area, but rescuers on Saturday have faced challenging sea conditions, including strong winds and waves reaching up to 2.5 meters (8 feet) high.

As of Saturday afternoon, rescue teams on two speedboats searching waters where the vessel was believed to have disappeared eventually located all 11 foreign tourists and one crew member alive. However, the boat’s 29-year-old captain, remains unaccounted for, Heriyanto said.

“We will continue the search and rescue operation for up to seven days to find him,” he said, adding that the rescued passengers have been safely evacuated and are staying at a resort in Tojo Unauna.

Survivors told rescuers the vessel encountered severe weather before the accident that caused their boat to break apart, prompting passengers to save themselves by reaching a liferaft, while the captain became separated from the group in poor visibility due to thick fog.

“The captain was believed to have remained aboard as the vessel split into two sections and sank,” Heriyanto said.

Indonesia is an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands where boats are a common form of transportation. With lax safety standards and problems with overcrowding, accidents occur frequently.

On July 15, a passenger boat carrying 76 people sank off Selayar Island, killing at least four people and leaving 14 others missing.

___

Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.