Jakarta: All 21 crew members reported missing after their fishing vessel sank off the Indonesian coast were rescued Tuesday, packed into a rickety raft floating in the open water, an official said.
The boat sank in bad weather early Monday, having left Taliabu island in the Molucca Sea the day before, heading for North Sulawesi several hundred nautical miles away.
The Central Sulawesi search and rescue agency said in a statement the crew members were found Tuesday morning some 25 nautical miles from where their boat sank.
The manifest had indicated 27 crew, but it turned out six had never made it on board, said the agency.
Photos and videos shared by authorities showed the crew, all in life jackets, being rescued from a wooden fishing platform.
Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in the Southeast Asian archipelago, due in part to lax safety standards and inclement weather.
In January, three Spanish tourists died when their boat sank off eastern Indonesia, and a 10-year-old boy was listed as officially missing after authorities ended the search.
