LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia — The multinational search for a missing Spanish football coach and his two sons is now focused on a single, grim possibility: that they remain entombed within the sunken hull of their vessel, as the operation enters its final scheduled 24 hours.
Fernando Martín Carreras, the coach of Valencia CF’s women’s B-team, and his sons, aged 9 and 10, have been missing for nine days since the tourist boat KM Putri Sakinah sank in the Padar Strait. The mission coordinator, Fathur Rahman of the Maumere Search and Rescue Agency, stated that the initial account from the ship’s captain indicated the victims were inside the cabin when the vessel went down.
“Based on the initial information, the victims were still in the boat. That possibility exists—that the three victims are still in the ship,” Fathur explained on Saturday.
This hypothesis has guided an exhaustive search involving dozens of divers, a fleet of surface vessels, and advanced sonar and thermal drone technology. The effort has been severely complicated by the powerful, shifting underwater currents for which the Labuan Bajo region is known, which may have carried the wreckage far from its initial sinking point.
The scenario that the family is still inside the sunken pinisi raises difficult questions. Giostanovlatto, a tourism observer and founder of Hey Bali News, noted a tragic inconsistency:
“If they are predicted to still be inside the ship, how was their daughter’s body recovered floating? It is possible that in the chaos of the sinking, she managed to exit the cabin before succumbing in the water, while the others remained trapped.”
He emphasized the operational challenge: “The currents here are formidable. Using sonar to find the wreck is like searching for a moving target being dragged across the seabed.” Joining the appeals of the grieving family, he added, “There is a deep hope that authorities will extend the search beyond its official end tomorrow, January 4.”
The search resumes Sunday under the weight of a final deadline, with teams hoping to locate the elusive wreck in the deep, current-swept channels of Komodo National Park and provide a resolution for a family clinging to the faintest hope of recovery.
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