LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia — The multinational search for a Spanish football coach and his two children entered its eighth day on Friday, with rescue teams deploying advanced thermal drones and side-scan sonar across a vast expanse of ocean in Indonesia’s Komodo National Park.
The operation, now extended by three days, is focused on locating Fernando Martin Carreras, the coach of the Valencia CF women’s B-team, and his two sons. They remain missing after the semi-pinisi tourist vessel KM Putri Sakinah sank in the Padar Strait on December 26. A fourth family member, their daughter, was recovered deceased earlier in the week.
“The joint SAR team today continues to focus on sweeping the islands nearest to Padar, conducting dives, deploying sonar equipment, and operating thermal drones,” stated Fathur Rahman, Head of the Maumere SAR Office (Basarnas), outlining the intensified technological push.
The scale of the effort remains significant. A combined force of 58 personnel aboard 11 vessels scoured the surface across a coordinated search radius. The lead vessel, KN Puntadewa, covered an area of 15.4 nautical miles, supported by boats from the Port Authority, Navy, and Water Police, each methodically sweeping designated sectors.
Beneath the surface, the effort turned to technology. Hydrographic navigation sonar (Hidronav) and other sub-surface scanning devices were deployed to map the seabed across several square miles, searching for any sign of the wreckage or the missing in the deep, current-driven channels of the UNESCO World Heritage site.
The decision to extend the search until January 4 was made at the formal request of the Spanish Embassy, underscoring the international dimension of the tragedy and the commitment to exhaust all possibilities. The family of the missing has remained in Labuan Bajo, having previously vowed not to return to Spain without their loved ones.
The use of thermal drones represents a critical adaptation in the search strategy. As the visual surface sweep continues, the drones can detect heat signatures across remote island shorelines and dense vegetation, areas difficult for ground teams to access. This method is particularly pertinent in the rugged, uninhabited topography of the Komodo archipelago.
While the afternoon concluded without a new discovery, the continued mobilization of personnel and technology signals a resolve that transcends the typical operational timeline. The search in the waters around Padar Island—a destination famed for its otherworldly pink沙滩 and dragon inhabitants—has become a grim testament to both the power of nature and the persistent hope for a resolution.
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