Indonesia suspends search for 29 missing after ferry sinking because of poor visibility

GILIMANUK, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities deployed navy ships and helicopters Friday in the intensified search for 29 people still missing almost two days after a ferry sank near the tourist island of Bali. But the search was later suspended because of poor visibility.

More than 160 rescuers including police and soldiers were involved in the search that resumed after being halted overnight because of poor visibility, said Ribut Eko Suyatno, the deputy chief of operations at the National Search and Rescue Agency.

Three helicopters and a thermal drone had been involved in the search by air over the Bali Strait, while about 20 vessels and fishing boats were mobilized for the sea search, Suyatno said. As weather forecasts predict high waves and rough waters around the Bali Strait on Friday, he said at least three navy ships had been deployed.

Videos and photos released by the agency showed rescuers looking desperately from rescue boats in the waters, but no new survivors or bodies were found by Friday evening.

The search was suspended Friday evening because of bad weather and poor visibility, and will resume early Saturday, Suyatno said.

Suyatno told reporters late Friday that visibility was down to 3 kilometers (under 2 miles) from 10 kilometers (just over 6 miles) on Thursday because of thick fog — that coupled with waves up to 2½ meters (more than 8 feet) high and strong winds “were hampering our efforts in the second day of search.”

The KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya ferry was carrying 53 passengers and 12 crew members when it sank almost a half hour after leaving Ketapang port in East Java late Wednesday for a trip of about 5 kilometers (3 miles) to Bali’s Gilimanuk port.

The agency released the names of 29 survivors and six people confirmed dead late Thursday. But Suyatno revised the survivors to 30 after a male passenger who was initially reported missing went straight home, and only reported himself to authorities on Friday. According to the passenger manifest, 29 people still were missing by Friday evening.

Survivors were being treated at Bali’s Jembrana Regional Hospital, while distraught relatives gathered at the port office in Gilimanuk on Friday, hoping for news of missing family members.

Television reports showed relatives wailing as they received the body of their loved ones in a handover ceremony at the hospital. One of them was Bintang Nur Hidayat, who lost his wife, Nindi Elly Rosita, whom he had married two weeks ago.

“Please forgive me Nindi," Hidayat said, weeping in his relatives arms. "I can’t take care of you, please forgive me.”

His father, Achmad, told reporters, while his 27-year-old son cried next to him, how the newlyweds, who were on their way to honeymoon in Bali, jumped off together when the ferry began to sink.

“However, the rapid sinking of the ship had created a huge wave that caused his wife to slip from his grasp,” said Achmad, who goes by a single name. He quoted his son as saying that Hidayat kept calling out his wife’s name, even as he was being lifted into a lifeboat, and ended up finding “his wife’s body in the hospital.”

Indonesian authorities are investigating the cause of the sinking. Some survivors told rescuers there appeared to be a leak in the engine room of the ferry, which was carrying 22 vehicles including 14 trucks.

But a survivor, Bejo Santoso, in an interview with Metro TV, believed that high waves and strong currents caused the sinking.

“The high waves hit the ferry several times, causing the vessel to roll to the left when it was halfway to Gilimanuk,” said Santoso, who was traveling alone to Bali. He recalled how trucks, buses and other cars immediately fell and piled up on the left side of the ferry, and within less than five minutes, the ship sank.

“It all happened so fast that there was not enough time for the crew to issue instructions,” Santoso said, adding that there were a lot of life jackets in the ferry, but in such a short time, only the people on the outer deck could reach them, including him. He said he immediately threw one overboard before jumping into the sea.

“I didn’t get to wear a life jacket on board, but held it as a floating tool for hours at sea until a fisherman rescued us early morning with his boat,” Santoso said. He estimated that only half of the people onboard were able to jump into the sea, some with life jackets and others with two lifeboats.

He floated for more than six hours in choppy waters along with three other male passengers, but one of them, who claimed to be suffering from lung disease, died after almost four hours of floating, “due to panic and drinking too much sea water,” Santoso said. The group of three kept the man’s body with them until they were rescued.

Ferry tragedies occur regularly in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, with weak enforcement of safety regulations often to blame.

Fifteen people were killed after a boat capsized off Indonesia’s Sulawesi in 2023, while another ferry sank in rough seas near Bali in 2021, leaving seven dead and 11 missing.

In 2018, an overcrowded ferry sank with about 200 people on board in a deep volcanic crater lake in North Sumatra province, killing 167 people.

In one of the country’s worst recorded disasters, an overcrowded passenger ship sank in February 1999 with 332 people aboard. There were only 20 survivors.

Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan contributed to this report from Jakarta.

Indonesian Coast Guard and National Search and Rescue Agency ship cruise the waters of Bali Strait during a search operation for the victims of a late Wednesday ferry sinking near Bali, Indonesia, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Indonesian Navy ship KRI Teluk Ende cruises the Straits of Bali during a search operation for the victims of a late Wednesday ferry sinking near Bali, Indonesia, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Crew fly a helicopter flying over the Bali Strait during a search operation for the victims of a late Wednesday ferry sinking near the resort island of Bali, Indonesia, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Rescuers search for victims after a ferry sank in the waters off Jembrana, Bali, Indonesia, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

A member of the National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) talks on his radio during a search search for the victims of a sunken ferry in the waters off Jembrana, Bali, Indonesia, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Rescuers on a boat depart to search for the victims of a sinking ferry in Jembrana, Bali, Indonesia, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Rescuers search for victims after a ferry sank in the waters off Jembrana, Bali, Indonesia, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

Rescuers search for victims after a ferry sank in the waters off Jembrana, Bali, Indonesia, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. flu infections showed signs of a slight decline last week, but health officials say it is not clear that this severe flu season has peaked.

New government data posted Friday — for flu activity through last week — showed declines in medical office visits due to flu-like illness and in the number of states reporting high flu activity.

However, some measures show this season is already surpassing the flu epidemic of last winter, one of the harshest in recent history. And experts believe there is more suffering ahead.

“This is going to be a long, hard flu season,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, in a statement Friday.

One type of flu virus, called A H3N2, historically has caused the most hospitalizations and deaths in older people. So far this season, that is the type most frequently reported. Even more concerning, more than 91% of the H3N2 infections analyzed were a new version — known as the subclade K variant — that differs from the strain in this year’s flu shots.

The last flu season saw the highest overall flu hospitalization rate since the H1N1 flu pandemic 15 years ago. And child flu deaths reached 289, the worst recorded for any U.S. flu season this century — including that H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic of 2009-2010.

So far this season, there have been at least 15 million flu illnesses and 180,000 hospitalizations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. It also estimates there have been 7,400 deaths, including the deaths of at least 17 children.

Last week, 44 states reported high flu activity, down slightly from the week before. However, flu deaths and hospitalizations rose.

Determining exactly how flu season is going can be particularly tricky around the holidays. Schools are closed, and many people are traveling. Some people may be less likely to see a doctor, deciding to just suffer at home. Others may be more likely to go.

Also, some seasons see a surge in cases, then a decline, and then a second surge.

For years, federal health officials joined doctors' groups in recommending that everyone 6 months and older get an annual influenza vaccine. The shots may not prevent all symptoms but can prevent many infections from becoming severe, experts say.

But federal health officials on Monday announced they will no longer recommend flu vaccinations for U.S. children, saying it is a decision parents and patients should make in consultation with their doctors.

“I can’t begin to express how concerned we are about the future health of the children in this country, who already have been unnecessarily dying from the flu — a vaccine preventable disease,” said Michele Slafkosky, executive director of an advocacy organization called Families Fighting Flu.

“Now, with added confusion for parents and health care providers about childhood vaccines, I fear that flu seasons to come could be even more deadly for our youngest and most vulnerable," she said in a statement.

Flu is just one of a group of viruses that tend to strike more often in the winter. Hospitalizations from COVID-19 and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, also have been rising in recent weeks — though were not diagnosed nearly as often as flu infections, according to other federal data.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

FILE - Pharmacy manager Aylen Amestoy administers a patient with a seasonal flu vaccine at a CVS Pharmacy in Miami, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)