KUDAT: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has confirmed that a boat ferrying four people, including two Spanish tourists, which went missing after leaving Balambangan Island last Monday, sank off the island.
MMEA Sabah/Labuan regional director, Maritime First Admiral Mohd Zubil Mat Som said this was based on a lead from a local fisherman who stumbled on the boat about 10am yesterday, as well as verification by the brother of the missing vessel’s owner, Lam Wai Yin Tommy.
He said the boat was found about 2.8 nautical miles north of Tanjung Simpang Mengayau by a fisherman, identified only as Amir, after his fishing net was entangled with the missing boat’s engine.
“We believe the boat had sunk, based on information we received from the fisherman,” he told reporters here yesterday.
Acting on the information, Mohd Zubil said the agency despatched its assets to the location and discovered a three-horsepower Yamaha engine, one of the boat’s two engines.
However, the other engine, of 30-horsepower capacity, was still in the water as it was too heavy for the fisherman to take it into his boat, he added.
Mohd Zubil said the Royal Malaysian Navy diving unit and MMEA would subsequently, retrieve the other engine located between a depth of 23 and 40 metres.
He said the search and rescue operation would focus on locating the victims.
The four reported missing from the boat were Spanish nationals David Hernandes Gasulla and Martha Miguel, both 30; Chinese national Tommy Lam Wai Yin, 44, owner of a resort in Tanjung Simpang Mengayau, and the resort’s local employee, Armella Ali Hassan, 23.
The four were scheduled to have arrived in Tanjung Simpang Mengayau at 8pm on that day. — Bernama