VIDEO | A Mother’s Cry Inside an Ambulance: Grief Unfolds as Body Believed to Be Valencia Coach’s Daughter Is Evacuated in Labuan Bajo

LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia — A short video recorded at a harbour in eastern Indonesia has captured the most painful moment yet in the unfolding tragedy of the Putri Sakinah boat sinking: the moment a mother is confronted with what authorities believe to be the body of her missing child.

The footage, obtained by Hey Bali News from journalists on the ground in Labuan Bajo, documents the evacuation of a young girl’s body from the waters of Komodo National Park on Monday morning. The child is believed to be the daughter of a Spanish football coach from Valencia, whose family was swept into disaster when their tourist vessel sank days earlier.

The video does not show the sea, nor the wreckage. Instead, it focuses on what follows — the quiet efficiency of rescue teams, and the raw, unfiltered grief of a parent.

From Boat to Shore

In the opening seconds of the video, officers from Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, BASARNAS, identifiable by their orange uniforms, are seen standing on a pier in Labuan Bajo. With measured movements, they lift a yellow body bag from a small vessel and carry it ashore.

Other officials — police officers and port authority personnel — stand nearby, forming a silent corridor as the transfer takes place. The harbour is active, yet subdued. No sirens. No shouting. Only coordination and tension.

The body bag is then carried toward an ambulance parked just meters from the pier, guarded closely as it moves.

The Ambulance Door Closes

As the body is placed into the ambulance, the emotional weight of the scene shifts sharply.

Inside the vehicle, a woman with light-colored hair is already waiting. Her posture is rigid, her expression strained by anticipation. She is the child’s mother.

The moment the stretcher slides into place, her composure collapses.

She begins to cry uncontrollably, her voice rising above the ambient noise. In Spanish, she repeats, “Necesito verlo” — “I need to see her.” She calls out a name, over and over, her voice breaking as she tries to reach toward the body bag.

A man beside her, believed to be a family member, wraps his arms around her in an attempt to steady her. It does not stop the sobbing. She clings to the stretcher, pressing herself toward the bag as if proximity alone might bring certainty, or comfort, or both.

The ambulance doors close soon after, sealing a moment of private grief that the camera, briefly and respectfully, bears witness to.

The child is believed to be one of the three children of Fernando Martín Carreras, a coach with Valencia CF’s women’s reserve team. Carreras and his children were reported missing after the tourist vessel Putri Sakinah sank in rough seas while traveling between Komodo Island and Pulau Padar.

His wife and youngest daughter survived the sinking. Three family members remain unaccounted for.

Reported by Christo Hulir
Written by Hey Bali Newsroom