The bodies of two Chinese tourists have finally departed Labuan Bajo, 11 days after their deaths, bringing a prolonged and painful wait to a close for a family that had already spent three days in the town waiting to bring them home.
The flight carrying the remains of Guo Xingyou, 29, and Sha Gingyang, 30, was scheduled to depart Komodo International Airport in Labuan Bajo at 7pm local time on Friday, July 25, 2026.
“Right now, the bodies are still at the airport,” said Paulus Ndarung, Acting Director of Komodo Regional General Hospital (RSUD), on Friday.
A Honeymoon Cut Short
Guo and Sha were on their honeymoon when they died while snorkeling in the waters off Pulau Kelor, Labuan Bajo, on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 15, 2026.
Their bodies were repatriated aboard a Batik Air flight, routed first to Bali before continuing on to China. “To Bali first,” Paulus said, describing the journey home.
The couple’s family, who had traveled from China and arrived in Labuan Bajo three days earlier, accompanied the repatriation process.
How the Deaths Occurred
The two tourists are believed to have died after being swept by strong currents on the western side of Pulau Kelor, leading to extreme exhaustion.
The tragedy began when the open-deck vessel KM Rinca Story (GT 19), owned by Agus Prawijaya, departed Marina Waterfront Port in Labuan Bajo at approximately 10am on July 15, carrying a mix of domestic and international tourists to Pulau Kelor, a popular trekking and snorkeling destination.
Upon arrival, the group went ashore and trekked before entering the water to snorkel. While the two Chinese tourists were in the water, no boat crew member or licensed professional guide was supervising them, their only guide was a vocational school student completing a field-work internship.
The couple was also not wearing life jackets while snorkeling. Boat crew had equipped them only with diving masks and fins.
Guo Xingyou was found floating in the water off Pulau Kelor. Fellow tourists attempted CPR, but he could not be revived. Sha Gingyang’s body was later located by a joint search and rescue team at a depth of 23 meters. Both bodies were evacuated to Komodo Regional General Hospital, where they remained for eleven days before repatriation was finally completed.
A Case That Outlasted the Headlines
For a family that arrived in a foreign country expecting to bring their children home for a funeral, not to spend more than a week navigating an unfamiliar bureaucratic process, the eleven-day delay added a painful postscript to an already devastating loss. The case drew attention not only for the tragic circumstances of the couple’s deaths, unsupervised snorkeling in strong currents, no life jackets, and a guide who was still a student, but for how long it ultimately took to bring them home once the immediate tragedy had passed.
With the family now able to return to China alongside their loved ones’ remains, the case closes one chapter of a story that has drawn renewed scrutiny to tourist boat safety standards around Labuan Bajo and Komodo National Park in recent weeks.
