Many missing as Jakarta plans to tow charred ferry

By Telly Nathalia

JAKARTA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The Indonesian navy plans to tow a fire-gutted ferry from the Java Sea towards port or a nearby island on Friday, officials said, amid confusion over how many passengers were on board and may still be missing.

The official count from the sea accident remains 16 dead and 17 missing based on the manifest for the ferry, the Levina I, which says 307 people were on board. However, officials fear there were many stowaways on the ill-fated ship.

"It is common for people who have no ticket to force their way on board using whatever way they find," said Lieutenant Colonel Hendra Pakan, spokesman of the Indonesian navy's western fleet that has deployed ships to rescue the passengers.

"There is a plan to tow the boat today and (it) will be escorted by a navy ship," he said.

Tanjung Priok port administrator Sato Bisri said the towed ferry might not end up in Jakarta but on an islet in the Thousand Islands archipelago off the Indonesian capital.

"We want to clear it up and pull it to the port but if that is impossible, we would beach it on the closest islet," he said.

The Levina I was on its way to Bangka island off Sumatra when it caught fire soon after dawn on Thursday 80 km (50 miles) from Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port.

Officials said preliminary findings lead to the possibility the fire started from a truck with inflammable chemical cargo and spread throughout the ferry.

SEARING HEAT

Many of the passengers hurled themselves off the blazing vessel into the sea to escape the flames and searing heat.

Heri Asmedi, an Indonesian Red Cross official, told Reuters most of the dead had wet clothes and no burns.

He added that up until Friday morning, relatives were still looking for information on a total of 123 people. Some of them may have been saved without their rescue having been recorded and a number of them may not have been listed on the manifest.

At the Red Cross post, photographs of the dead who had not been claimed by relatives covered a wooden billboard, while relatives of the missing poured over a posted list of the passenger manifest over and over again.

Sri Handayani had not heard anything about her husband who travelled with three colleagues from his expedition company to Bangka island on the ferry.

"The three others have returned but I do not know where my husband is. I tried to call his cellphone but it was dead. His name is not on the manifest and his picture is not on the victim board," said the 21-year-old woman who got married last year and is now pregnant.

Transport Minister Hatta Rajasa said it was too early to be clear on the cause of the blaze on the 27-year-old Japanese built ferry.

Ferries are a popular means of transport among the 17,000 islands of Indonesia, where sea connections are cheaper and more available than air routes. But safety standards are not always strictly enforced and accidents occur fairly often.

Overcrowding and bribing crew to get on board for less than the cost of a ticket are common on public sea and ground transport in Indonesia, a vast country of 220 million people and poor infrastructure. (Additional reporting by Mita Valina Liem)