UNS — Badan Koordinasi Pelaksana (Bakorlak)(Coordinating Committee of Operation) Search and Rescue (SAR) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta successfully evacuated three victims killed in the Kedung Ombo Dam tourism boat accident, Saturday (15/5/2021). The evacuated victims were two girls and one woman.
A member of Bakorlak SAR UNS, Faizal Pramudito Adi Sarno, S. Pd, shared the evacuation story to uns.ac.id team. Bakorlak SAR UNS involvement in the case started when they received the news of the fateful incident from the SAR volunteer WhatsApp group on Saturday (15/5/2021) at 12.56 WIB (UTC+7). Faizal stated that Bakorlak SAR UNS prepared a team of 15 people who departed from their headquarter with diving equipment at 14.15 WIB of the same day. “We arrived at the site at 17.00 WIB,” he added.
Their equipment consists of operational cars, diving sets, one LCR engine boat and fuel, ropes, life jackets, and communication tools. The alumnus of Physical Education, Health and Recreation Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FKIP) UNS, added that their divers are experienced in handling water incidents.
Evacuation Process
Faizal said that during the search process, their divers experienced difficulties in terms of limited underwater visibility caused by muddy water. “In every water incident, the main difficulty is always the limited visibility. Even we could not see at all. The depth of water in the search area was between 15 to 30 meters,” Faizal said. Another difficulty in this operation is a large number of ropes used to hold the floating restaurant and fish cages in the dam.
Before starting the search operation, the Bakorlak SAR UNS divers team and two army personnel conducted an observation on the main search site using a boat. Bakorlak SAR UNS divers started their first search mission and found the first victim at 15 meters. “In the second dive, (our) team successfully evacuated two victims, a woman and a girl, (we found) none on the third and fourth dive,” Faizal explained.
The operation was carried out by exploring the base of the reservoir using ropes as marking. Divers pulled the rope connected to their body when they found a body as a cue for the operator on the boat to pull them out of the water. The initial plan was to evacuate all the bodies in one go, as the team expects the victims to be close to each other. “But it was adjusted to the situation,” Faizal added.
However, there is no gain without pain. One of Bakorlak’s SAR UNS divers was hurt when he tried to free himself from the ropes used to anchor the floating restaurant in the dam. Humas UNS
Reporter: Yefta Christopherus AS
Editor: Dwi Hastuti