Bomba Sarawak director Khirudin Drahman (centre) being briefed on the ongoing SAR operation at Telaga Air jetty today.
KUCHING (Oct 5): A MI 171 helicopter from the Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) Miri has been despatched in the search for the five missing anglers who failed to return to the Telaga Air jetty.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in a statement today said that the helicopter was assigned to comb the sea from Santubong to Tanjung Datu, 15 nautical miles from the coastal area to look for the missing victims.
MMEA Sarawak director First Admiral Zin Azman Md Yunus said that the search area today covered 381.48 nautical miles.
“The area of focus by the MMEA vessel KM Sri Aman was near the location of the missing fishing boat, from the seas of Karang Berumput/Tukun Bass to Tanjung Datu, which is 15 nautical miles from the coastal are,” he said.
The five anglers were reported missing since Oct 3 and the search and rescue (SAR) operation is being coordinated by the Maritime Rescue Sub Centre (MRSC) under MMEA together with other agencies.
As of 3pm today, the missing anglers have yet to be spotted.
The weather conditions today are windy with a wave height of between 2.5 metres to 3.5 metres and a wind speed of 40 to 50 kilometres per hour.
Eight fishing boats from the local maritime community also participated in the search by splitting into two groups searching the eastern and western sides of the missing boat’s last known position.
A total of 90 personnel and SAR officers are involved in the operation.
MMEA also urged the maritime community not to head out to sea due to unfavourable weather conditions, especially with the Northeast Monsoon taking place from Oct to March.
Zin Azman previously said that the five anglers had boarded a boat heading to the waters of Karam Berumput/Tukun Bass some 9.3 nautical miles from Santubong on Friday.
He said that the missing anglers are all male and have been identified as Khamizan Saidi, 40 (skipper); Ng Ching Hui, 36; Christopher Teo, 32; Yap Tze Kang, 41; and Leo Dy Lee Jiann Tarn, 35.
“According to the police report, the boat that was boarded by the individuals left Jetty 98, Santubong Fishing Village at around 5pm on Oct 1 and they could not be contacted after that,” he said.
He said an orange buoy was found on Sunday at a distance of 34.5 nautical miles from the Santubong river estuary, which was confirmed by the boat owner.
Maritime Malaysia welcomes any information from the maritime community in reporting any emergency at sea directly to the MERS 999 hotline or the 24-hour Malaysia Maritime Operations Centre Sarawak hotline at 082-432544.