LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia — On the third day of a sprawling search operation in the Komodo National Park, rescue teams discovered a critical piece of evidence but have yet to locate the four missing members of a Spanish family. A life jacket belonging to the sunken vessel KM Putri Sakinah was recovered Sunday morning, offering a grim clue in the hunt for Valencia CF coach Fernando Martín Carreras and his three children.
The official search and rescue team, operating under the coordination of the Maumere SAR Office, located the life jacket at approximately 9:30 AM local time. According to a written statement from the head of the office, Fathur Rahman, the debris was found at coordinates 8° 38.423’S – 119° 37.843’E, roughly 1.61 nautical miles from the initial sinking site near Padar Island.
Despite this discovery, intensive search efforts throughout Sunday—extending north and south of Padar Island and involving both surface sweeps and underwater dives—failed to find the missing individuals. The search was called off for the day at 5:00 PM local time without further results.
Challenging Conditions Hamper Underwater Search
The underwater phase of the operation, conducted by professional divers from the West Manggarai SAR post and the Komodo Professional Divers Association (P3KOM), faced significant and dangerous obstacles. Divers reported exceptionally strong currents that posed a risk to the search teams themselves. Furthermore, heavy rain over the search area severely reduced underwater visibility, complicating the effort.
“The joint SAR team conducting the dives reported that the currents during the dive were quite strong, which could endanger the divers,” Fathur Rahman stated. He confirmed that the search for the four foreign nationals would resume on Monday, marking a fourth day of operations.
A Faint Trail in a Vast Sea
The recovery of the life jacket is a tangible, yet heartbreaking, development for the family awaiting news onshore and for the international community following the tragedy. It confirms the drift pattern of debris from the wreck site but also underscores the immense challenge of locating individuals in a vast, dynamic marine environment with powerful currents.
For the expatriate and traveler community in Bali, many of whom have visited or planned trips to Komodo, the ongoing operation is a sobering lesson in the raw power of the Flores Sea. The conditions now hindering rescuers—strong currents and sudden heavy rain—are the same elements that contribute to the area’s rich marine biodiversity and its reputation as a world-class diving destination. This tragedy highlights the fine line between adventure and hazard in one of the planet’s most magnificent but demanding marine parks.
The search continues, with hopes diminishing but the resolve of the rescue teams remaining steadfast. The thoughts of the community are with the family, the survivors, and the professionals braving difficult conditions in their search.