2 days ago
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘I tied his body to my thigh': Extraordinary stories of death and survival in Bali ferry disaster
It was a pleasant coincidence for Bejo Santoso that in his maxi taxi to the ferry terminal in Indonesia's Banyuwangi regency there were two people hailing from his village.
It was a mother and a three-year-old boy, on their way to Bali's Gilimanuk port and continuing on in the taxi to Denpasar, where the woman's husband was waiting for them.
Bejo and the woman chatted. She was going home to her immediate family. He was leaving his family to go back to his Bali construction job. At the ferry, he helped the boy up the stairs, then watched as mother and child made their way to the centre of the cabin, for it was too windy on the deck.
Bejo went outside nonetheless and sat with the smokers on the side. It was about 10.50pm Bali time (12.50am AEST) on Wednesday night.
Not half an hour into the five kilometre ride, 22-year-old passenger Nanda Sinta noticed that the boat was behaving peculiarly. Travelling the East Java-Bali route about ten times a year, she knew the motions. Normally in big waves, the ferry rocks side to side. Now, it seemed stuck on a permanent lean.
'Then, people in the back started screaming because the boat was taking water,' she said. 'It all happened so quickly.'
On the side decks with the smokers, Bejo realised the boat was sinking. As it started to go down and he leapt with about 30 others into the sea, he caught a glimpse of the mother and boy still in the cabin.
Nanda jumped too. 'I couldn't swim, but my two friends could. When the ferry started sinking, I just followed along when they jumped,' she says. 'Staying would mean risking sinking with the boat.'
