LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia — The ninth day of a multinational search for a Spanish football coach and his two sons concluded on Saturday without any trace of the missing family or the vessel that carried them. The operation, one of Indonesia’s most extensive recent maritime rescues, now faces a stark deadline.
Fernando Martín Carreras, coach of the Valencia CF women’s B-team, and his two sons disappeared after the tourist boat KM Putri Sakinah sank in the Padar Strait of Komodo National Park on December 26. Despite an extension granted earlier this week, the official search is scheduled to end after Sunday, January 4, leaving rescuers with only one final day of sweeping the vast and complex seascape.
“The search results up to today are nil,” stated Fathur Rahman, Head of the Maumere Search and Rescue Office (Basarnas) and the mission coordinator, on Saturday night. He added a significant and troubling detail: the main wreckage of the wooden pinisi schooner has also not been located. “The point of the ship’s hull itself has not been found at all,” Fathur said.
This absence complicates the mission. Authorities have noted the possibility that the victims could still be inside the cabin, but the precise location of the sunken craft remains a mystery despite the use of divers and side-scan sonar technology across suspected areas.
Over the past nine days, search teams have recovered only scattered debris from the boat itself. Items collected include life jackets, a ring buoy, gas cylinders, and foam seat cushions, along with two floating fragments of the wooden hull. Notably, no personal belongings of the three missing individuals have been found.
The recovery of generic safety equipment, but not the victims or their possessions, paints a picture of a vessel that may have fragmented under pressure, with its contents scattered by the powerful currents of the Flores Sea.
With the final 24 hours of the official operation now underway, the massive effort involving over 150 personnel and a fleet of vessels is reaching its conclusion. The outcome will determine whether the grieving family, who have remained in Labuan Bajo, will be forced to endure the profound uncertainty of a loss without physical closure in one of the world’s most formidable and deep marine environments.
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