Assistant boat skipper still not found after four days of SAR at sea

Sarawak Maritime director First Admiral Zin Azman Md Yunus said the rescue team did not find any new clues as at 3 pm today.

"It was rather windy when the rescue team conducted the SAR today, with wind speeds of 40 to 50 kilometres an hour and waves as high as from 2.5 to 3.5 metres.

"The search area encompassed 450.24 nautical square miles with the focus of the search in the waters of Santubong, Pulau Satang, Pulau Sampadi until Tanjung Datu," he said in a statement today.

Zin Azman said 10 assets of the security forces were involved in the search out at sea and along the coast today, including a Maritime Malaysia boat, two Marine Police Force boats and three Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) boats.

The others were two Sarawak Coast Guard boats, namely, SC Barracuda and SC Tenggiri and a AS355N Ecureuil helicopter belonging to the police.

On Oct 2, the boat carrying 10 angles sank two nautical miles from the waters of Pulau Satang and nine of them were rescued by fishermen near Pulau Satang Besar at about 1 am on Sunday (Oct 3).

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, Zin Azman said the third day of a SAR operation for a fishing boat with five anglers, which reportedly did not return to jetty after leaving Jetty 98 Fishing Village on Oct 1 at 5 pm, also came up empty.

He said the SAR covered an area of 381.48 nautical miles and the focus of the search was in the areas the angles were reported to have gone missing, namely, in the waters of Karang Berumput and Tukun Bass until the waters of Tanjung Datu.

"An aerial search will be carried out using a JBPM MI 171 helicopter from the Sarawak Regional Air Base, Miri in the waters of Santubong until Tanjung Datu, 15 miles from the beach and beyond while eight boats from the maritime community will conduct a search along the coastal areas," he said.

According to the complainant, the group of anglers could not be contacted when they were at sea and a police report was lodged while an orange buoy, confirmed to be from the boat, was found 34.5 nautical miles from the estuary of the Sungai Santubong yesterday by the rescue team.