Closure of the other missing diver, RIP Shoko Takahashi !!
16 March 2014
TEMPO.CO, Malang - Mayat perempuan berpakaian selam terdampar di pantai Pulau Sempu, Desa Tambakrejo, Kecamatan Sumbermanjing Wetan, Kabupaten Malang, Sabtu sore, 15 Maret 2014. Kepala Satuan Polisi Air Kepolisian Resor Malang Ajun Komisaris Slamet Prayitno menaksir mayat perempuan itu berusia 30-an tahun.
"Dugaan sementara, mayat itu adalah warga negara Jepang yang hanyut di perairan Bali," kata Slamet di kamar Instalasi Forensik Kedokteran RSUD dr Sjaiful Anwar, Kota Malang, Ahad dinihari, 16 Maret 2014.
Jenazah perempuan itu tiba di kamar mayat sekitar pukul 01.50 WIB. Kondisi tubuhnya tak lagi lengkap, tanpa pergelangan tangan kanan-kiri, pergelangan kaki kanan-kiri, dan tak ada kepala. Sedangkan badannya masih terbungkus pakaian selam warna hitam, lengkap dengan tempat tabung oksigen di bagian punggung.
Dugaan mayat berwarga negara Jepang berdasarkan pada ciri-ciri yang disampaikan polisi Bali. Diduga mayat perempuan itu bernama Shoko Takahashi, yang hilang sejak pertengahan Februari di perairan Nusa Lembongan, Bali.
Menurut Slamet, mayat Shoko pertama kali ditemukan tersangkut di karang Watu Nyonya oleh nelayan Sendangbiru pada Jumat, 14 Maret 2014. Nelayan lalu melapor ke polisi. Laporan nelayan ditindaklanjuti dengan menyusuri lokasi penemuan mayat. Namun arus laut sempat menggeser posisi mayat, sehingga tim pencari tak bisa menemukannya.
Nelayan lain melaporkan penemuan mayat serupa di pinggir pantai Pulau Sempu, cagar alam seluas 877 hektare yang menyatu dengan obyek wisata Pantai Sendangbiru. Dari informasi itu, tim pencari dari polisi, TNI Angkatan Laut, relawan Palang Merah Indonesia, dan warga setempat melanjutkan penelusuran pada Sabtu sore pukul 15.00 WIB.
Ternyata, posisi mayat tergeser 400 meter dari lokasi penemuan awal atau berjarak sekitar 1 kilometer dari Dermaga Sendangbiru. "Karena medan berat dan keterbatasan alat, evakuasi baru bisa dilakukan pukul 18.00-20.30 WIB," ujar Slamet. "Dan kami akan menghubungi Konsulat Jenderal Jepang di Surabaya untuk memastikan identitas mayat itu."
Sebelumnya, sekitar tujuh penyelam Jepang sempat hilang di Perairan Nusa Lembongan, Bali, pada pertengahan Februari 2014. ketika itu, mereka sedang merayakan seratus kali penyelaman bersama. Namun tujuh penyelam itu terseret arus bawah laut yang mendadak berubah sangat cepat. Setelah empat hari pencarian, lima orang ditemukan selamat, seorang meninggal bernama Ritsuko Miyata, dan tinggal Shoko Takahashi yang belum ditemukan.
Takahashi berasal dari Morioka, Prefektur Iwate. Berumur 35 tahun, ia bersuamikan pria Indonesia dan menetap di Bali.
credit to : ABDI PURMONO
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The seven Japanese women -- two dive instructors and five tourists -- failed to return to the surface Friday after a dive near the Indonesian islands of Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida, just southeast of Bali.
The owner of the Bali dive company Yellow Scuba told CNN that the captain who accompanied the seven hired a Yellow Scuba boat but did not work for the company. The captain, in a written statement given to police and published in local news reports, said the weather was good when the divers entered the water.
"But about 15 minutes later, it was cloudy. I tried to find them but my efforts produced no results," the captain's statement reads.
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Five of seven Japanese women who disappeared during a diving excursion off the Indonesian island of Bali last week were found alive and rescued Monday, Bali's search and rescue agency said.
Photos distributed by Getty Images showed some of the women being transferred from a boat to ambulances on Bali on Monday, three days after they were reported missing. The women were being treated at two Bali hospitals Monday, the rescue agency said.
The agency didn't immediately release details about where the women were found, their conditions or whether the survivors have said anything about what happened to them and the two divers who are still missing.
Fishermen found four of the women Monday afternoon and alerted authorities, and a rescue boat was sent for them. A fifth survivor was later found in the same area, and a search and rescue helicopter picked her up, the rescue agency said.
The five are Saori Furukawa, a 37-year-old diving instructor living in Bali; and four participants in the diving tour—Emi Yamamoto, 33, Aya Morizono, 27, Atsumi Yoshidome, 29, and Nahomi Tomita, 28.
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| Saori Furukawa, one of the rescued divers |
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From one diver to another, RIP Ritsuko Miyata.
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DENPASAR 20 February 2014 - The man has been named a suspect and is accused of “negligence which caused the loss of life” by leaving the female divers alone in the open seas during the trip, said Handoyo Supeno of Bali marine police.Indonesian police have arrested the captain of a boat that took a group of Japanese divers on an ill-fated expedition off Bali in which at least one woman died, an official said Thursday.
by de Guardian :
One of the five Japanese scuba divers who were rescued after spending three days stranded on a reef off the coast of Bali has described how the group survived by drinking from coconuts after a sudden storm turned the sea into a violent whirlpool.
One of the five Japanese scuba divers who were rescued after spending three days stranded on a reef off the coast of Bali has described how the group survived by drinking from coconuts after a sudden storm turned the sea into a violent whirlpool.
Saori Furukawa, 37, a Bali-based diving instructor, and four other female divers, were rescued on Monday after being spotted on a rocky outcrop almost 19 miles from where they started their dive last Friday, near the Indonesian resort island.
When the group had set off on Friday, from Nusa Lembongan, just east of Bali, said the weather had been "serene", said Furukawa.
"At the start of our dive there was no problem in terms of weather and sea conditions," she said, adding there had been almost no waves.
Without warning, however, heavy rain fell and with strong winds dramatically reduced visibility, she said. "The surface of the sea started to spin like a washing machine and all of us span around together, hand in hand."
The dramatic account given by Furukawai, recalling their three-day ordeal, came soon after the body of one of the other divers in the seven-strong group, was recovered from the sea off Bali.
Local police said the dead woman was identified as 59-year-old Ritsuko Miyata, whose body was discovered by swimmers in the Serangan area of the island.
Felix Sangkalia, of the Bali police headquarters, said her time in the sea meant her husband identified her by her wedding ring. A police autopsy found that Miyata had been dead for at least three days.
Japanese media had identified the five other female divers as Shoko Takahashi, 35, Emi Yamamoto, 33, Nahomi Tomita, 28, Aya Morizono, 27, and Atsumi Yoshinobe, 29.
Japanese media had identified the five other female divers as Shoko Takahashi, 35, Emi Yamamoto, 33, Nahomi Tomita, 28, Aya Morizono, 27, and Atsumi Yoshinobe, 29.
The search continued on Wednesday for the remaining member of the group, the instructor Takahashi, who, along with Furukawa, had been leading the group on the dive when disaster struck.
Local authorities said the search for Takahashi would be called off if they failed to locate her by the end of Thursday, according to AFP.
The waters off Nusa Lembongan are prized for their clarity, mangroves and colourful fish, but are prone to squalls and dangerous downward currents.
Furukawa and the four surviving divers got through the first night in the ocean, trying to keep each other awake and drinking from passing coconuts. They later clambered on to rocks after drifting "for a long time", she said.
At one point, Furukawa left the group to try to intercept a passing tugboat, but was unable to get close. "The current was running in the opposite direction from the current where the rest of our group was staying, so I was swept further away from them," she said.
She survived another two days by drinking rainwater before being spotted by a Japanese man, from Bali, who had joined the search, the news site Yomiuri Shimbun said.
A man running a diving shop in Bali told the paper that Furukawa had been too weak to stand unaided when she was found. She was later picked up by helicopter.
The other four divers, who were found by local fishermen, were rescued by boat.The five survivors were found in the Manta Point area off Nusa Penida, a small island south-east of Bali.
Hopes are fading for Takahashi, who set up the company, which organised the dive, with her Indonesian husband, Putu Mahardena Sembah. He has joined the search for his wife. "I'm not lucky today," he told AFP emotionally.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------From one diver to another, RIP Ritsuko Miyata.
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DENPASAR 20 February 2014 - The man has been named a suspect and is accused of “negligence which caused the loss of life” by leaving the female divers alone in the open seas during the trip, said Handoyo Supeno of Bali marine police.Indonesian police have arrested the captain of a boat that took a group of Japanese divers on an ill-fated expedition off Bali in which at least one woman died, an official said Thursday.
The news came as officials called off the search for the final missing diver, Shoko Takahashi—one of seven women who took part in the expedition which set off last Friday from an island east of Bali.
The divers quickly became lost and drifted for miles in stormy seas before five of them managed to clamber onto rocks in the ocean and were rescued three days later.
The body of a sixth diver was found floating near a beach on Tuesday.
Supeno, the head of law enforcement at the marine police, said the captain, whom he did not name, had been named a suspect Wednesday following interviews with four of those rescued.
The women told how they “dived for 30 minutes and came to the surface but the Ocean Express was not there”, he said, referring to the boat.
“We named the boat captain a suspect as he has (committed) negligence which caused the loss of life.” The captain has been detained, added Supeno.
Police were also investigating one of the instructors on the trip, Bali-based Japanese national Saori Furukawa who ran the scuba company that organised the expedition, said Supeno.
However he added there was only a “slim possibility” she would be named a suspect since she had all the necessary qualifications for an instructor.
Bali search and rescue chief Didi Hamzar said Thursday evening the hunt for the final missing diver had been called off entirely after another unsuccessful day.
“Everyone in Bali is aware of this incident I am sure they will inform us if they find the missing person,” he said.
Four of the rescued divers were earlier Thursday discharged from hospital and prepared to return home, bowing to reporters as they left the building.
“We apologise for causing tremendous worries and trouble,” one of them said.
“We pray the missing person will be found as soon as possible.”
In a joint statement, the four women gave new details of their ordeal, saying they worked hard to keep each others’ spirits up after drifting for days and being pushed onto rocks.
“We told each other that we will go home alive. We encouraged each other by saying we could keep going because we had already survived drifting in the water for 28 hours,” they said.
After drifting, four of them managed to clamber onto some rocks on Saturday in a remote area off Nusa Penida island, which is next to Nusa Lembongan where the expedition began.
They sheltered themselves from the harsh sun during the day and climbed up to the highest point to flash distress lights at night, fighting all the time against exhaustion and thirst.
“We were exhausted. We couldn’t get any water on the first day as it was sunny. On the second day, we collected rain water in our fins to quench our thirst. We also collected rain water in plastic bottles picked up from garbage,” they said.
They were rescued by boat Monday in the Manta Point area off Nusa Penida, some 20 kilometers from where they set off.
Furukawa was picked up by helicopter nearby and had already been discharged from hospital.
The four women who left hospital Thursday would fly back to Japan in the evening, Japanese consular official Kenichi Takeyama told AFP.
“They are physically well but mentally they are devastated,” he added.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency named the women discharged as: Emi Yamamoto; Atsumi Yoshidome; Aya Morizono; and Nahomi Tomita.
According to the agency, the dead woman is Ritsuko Miyata.
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