Indonesia resumes search for 30 missing ferry passengers

Indonesian rescuers are battling strong currents on Friday as they resume the search for 30 persons still missing at sea about 35 hours after a ferry sank killing at least six persons, officials said.

The ferry named KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya was carrying 65 people, all Indonesians, when it sank about 30 minutes after setting sail from East Java bound for the holiday island of Bali on Wednesday night, said search and rescue agency official Ribut Eko Suyatno.

Twenty-nine survivors were rescued on Thursday before the search was called off due to poor visibility.

Dayu Made Silawati, 55, said her husband, Dewa Gede Adyana Putra Usia, was travelling on the ferry to pick up supplies in Bali for his job as a truck driver.

Waiting for news at a rescue centre in Bali, she said the last time she spoke to him was on Wednesday night.

"'I just got on the ship,'" she recalled him saying. "I said to him, 'be careful', dear."

At 4 am on Thursday, Silawati said she called him again, and again. There was no answer.

Rescue operations resumed on Friday in the waters of Bali Strait involving ships, helicopters, and hundreds of rescuers, Eko said. Strong currents and rain are expected.

Transportation safety investigators would probe the cause of the sinking when the search is over, officials said. The ferry was not overloaded when it went down, officials said on Thursday.

Ferries are a common mode of transportation in Indonesia, a nation of over 17,000 islands, and lax safety standards allow vessels to be overcrowded with inadequate life-saving equipment.