25 February 2007
Suherman and Muhammad Guntur
Other accident
The charred wreckage of an Indonesian ferry sank while investigators and journalists were aboard inspecting the damage from a fire from the previous week.
The gutted wreckage had been anchored near Jakarta's port when it suddenly listed and sank with 16 people on board, several of the journalists said.
Suherman, a cameraman from Lativi TV, was killed, while another and two police were missing.
Four people were seriously injured.
Eko Widodo, a MetroTV reporter, said the ferry started sinking about five minutes after journalists got on board. He said he saw the missing cameraman struggling to maintain his footing while holding onto his camera.
"We told him to throw the camera away but he did not want to," Widodo told his TV station. He said authorities provided life vests but the reporters chose not to wear them. "It was our own mistake," he said. "I nearly drowned... but eventually pulled my body up to the surface and then was helped by another man."
Rescuers found the body of SCTV cameraman Muhammad Guntur 2 days after the ferry sank.
