Indonesian rescue teams reported this Monday that they have recovered a body in the waters near the place where and where they are looking for, the soccer coach Fernando Martín, one of his sons and two other minors who accompanied him on a family trip.
According to the statement from the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), a resident of the island of Serai saw a body floating about 0.5 nautical miles from the point of the possible sinking of the ship where the Spaniards were traveling. A raft of rescuers came this morning to recover the lifeless remains, and they are in the process of verifying their identity.
Fathur Rahman, the Basarnas officer who coordinates the mission, noted in a statement that the body was taken by ambulance to the Komodo Regional Hospital, in the city of Labuan Bajo, from where part of the operation is being conducted.
The officer did not provide details about the victim’s nationality, but did indicate that she was a woman without specifying her age, and noted that the victim’s family has also gone to the center to carry out the identification process.
The rescuers, joined by police boats and professional divers, began this Monday the fourth day of searching for the Spaniards, an adult and three minors. The BASARNAS ship KN Puntadewa joined the operation today, with 27 crew members, including three expert divers, who join the 70 troops previously deployed.
The tourist boat, called KM Putri Sakinah, sank in the waters near the island of Padar – eastern Indonesia – around 8:30 p.m. on Friday (1:30 p.m. GMT), after which a search was activated with boats and diving equipment.
The four missing are Fernando Martín, former soccer player and coach of the Valencia CF women’s B team; and three minors: a son of Martín and two of the children (a boy and a girl) of Andrea Ortuño, recently married to Martín.
Ortuño was also traveling on the boat but was rescued, along with another of her daughters, as sources close to the family have clarified after the initial confusion with their identities.
