AN INDONESIAN ferry carrying 250 passengers and 17 crew capsized and sank yesterday after being battered by high winds and heavy seas whipped up by a cyclone.
Seventeen passengers and one crew member were rescued by a passing fishing boat, but there were growing fears for the others aboard the ship.
The fierce sea conditions off eastern Indonesia hampered search efforts for the missing, many of whom were believed to have leapt into the treacherous waters.
The ferry sinking is part of a litany of maritime tragedies in Indonesia, the result of the 17,000-island archipelago's reliance on sea transport and lax safety standards that often see ill-maintained and overcrowded vessels put to sea.
The 700-tonne Teratai Prima sank before dawn while travelling between the ports of Pare-Pare, on Sulawesi, and Samarinda, in Kalimantan.
Pare-Pare maritime officials said the ship ran into heavy seas and 6m waves generated by the cyclone.
According to testimony from the rescued crew member, the ferry was hit by an enormous wave that caused it to turn over and sink about 64km (40 miles) off the west coast of Sulawesi, near the port of Majene.
Shortly beforehand, the ship's captain had radioed port officials that the vessel had been "hit by a storm", although it was unclear whether he had managed to send a mayday alert after the huge wave struck.
Indonesia's transport minister Jusman Syafii Djamal said 150 people had been taken off the ferry.
But another official in his department said they had leapt into the water as the ship rolled over, and it was unlikely they would have had the chance to put on lifejackets as most would have been asleep before the ship was hit.
The 18 rescued survivors were clinging to liferafts when found by the fishing boat.
"So far 18 people, including one crew member, have been rescued by a passing boat. We have dispatched a search and rescue team, navy patrol and others to find missing people," said Bambang Ervan, a transport ministry spokesman.
Anxious relatives wept as they waited in Samarinda, hoping for word from officials co-ordinating the search that more survivors would be found. But as darkness fell yesterday, hopes were fading fast.
Despite Indonesia's poor transportation record, maritime officials in Pare-Pare said the ship was well within its passenger capacity of up to 300 when it went down.
In December 2006 a ferry carrying at least 600 people sank in a night-time storm in the waters between Java and Borneo, though in the following days 250 survivors were found.
A couple of months later at least 42 people were killed when fire broke out aboard a ferry heading from Jakarta to Bangka island off Sumatra.
There have also been several accidents involving Indonesia's domestic airlines, prompting the European Union to ban Indonesian carriers from its airspace.