Two Bodies Recovered After British International School, JKT Trek Goes Horribly Wrong
One of my worst nightmares.
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Two Bodies Recovered After British International School Trek Goes Horribly Wrong
The British International School have confirmed that two bodies, including one student, have been recovered after a school trek in the Puncak mountains on Tuesday.
BIS admissions director Lee Bretherick said authorities were still formally identifying the bodies and were preparing to release a public statement soon.
Antara are reporting that authorities have recovered the body of Arpan Palindungan Ade, 30, an outward bound instructor in the Cisadane river.
The state news agency also identified the missing student as a South Korean national.
Lee Bretherick, speaking to the Jakarta Globe earlier, said that a year 8 student enrolled with the school had disappeared during a trek in the Pancawati area in the foothills of the mountain range.
Lee said the school was still “not fully aware” of the details surrounding the disappearance but it appeared a “sudden rise in water levels caused the situation to arise.”
He said the school had the full cooperation of West Java authorities and a search was underway, which included the involvement of the Indonesian Military.
Other groups of students from the school had returned to Jakarta and were being offered counseling.
One parent who contacted the Jakarta Globe with news of the emergency said the school’s communication with parents had not been ideal.
Search Continues For BIS Student; Questions Raised About Trek Safety
Search Continues For BIS Student; Questions Raised About Trek Safety
Rescue teams continued to scour the Cisadane River on Thursday for a missing student from the British International School.
BIS admissions director Lee Bretherick told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday, that an earlier statement on Wednesday — that the missing 13-year old girl, who was swept away crossing a river on a school trip in Puncak, West Java — was incorrect and that the student had still not been found.
State news agency Antara has identified the missing student as South Korean Sei Young, 13, though police and BIS are yet to make an official announcement.
The battered body of guide Arpan Palindungan Ade, 30, has been recovered.
Two people posted comments on the Jakarta Globe Web site, praising Ade’s actions prior to his death.
“My sincere condolences to the family of Sei Young and the brave and selfless guide, pak Ade, who sacrificed his life,” wrote sinsim, “As a parent of BIS, I know that BIS has always been very serious about students' safety. Lets not speculate about what happened. But, I do urge the parents and staff of BIS organize a fund raising and donate generously to Pak Ade’s family. Things happened, it's time to take care of those who sacrificed.”
According to another parent who contacted the Jakarta Globe on Thursday, a group of students were crossing a fast-flowing river when Sei, no longer to maintain her grip on a support rope, slipped and fell into the river, which was swollen by recent rainfall.
Ade, she said, released his hold of the rope in a heroic bid to save Sei but also slipped and fell.
The parent, who said she had a student on the same BIS visit as Sei, also alleged that the school or the outdoor company ignored weather warnings that could have prevented the death of the student.
“I’m not trying to blame anyone but they should have known that the weather was extreme.”
The woman said there were two groups of trekkers, with the first group, of which her son was a member, departing at about 9 a.m. and returning about five hours later. She said that when her son’s group returned, the second group, of which Sei was a member, were told not to proceed given the deteriorating conditions.
“This is just common sense,” she said. “Who made the decision to go?"
She said legal action should be taken against the person who made the ill-fated decision.
Bretherick said the school had launched a “full inquiry” into the incident but were currently focused on recovering the missing student, with the school principal and other staff members joining search and rescue teams from the West Java Police and Indonesian Military, in the hills to the south of the capital.
The parent also criticized BIS for its failure to provide adequate communication with concerned parents who could not sleep on Tuesday night as they wondered about the fate of their loved ones.
She rejected school claims that it had acted appropriately, saying that she received a message from her son — sent from an unknown cellphone at 6 p.m. on Tuesday — that stated that he was safe and not to worry.
Unable to contact her son directly as his cellphone battery was dead or receive further word about what was happening, it was not until 10:30 p.m. that the school sent a text message but again it failed to provide any information, saying that there had been an “incident” but that their children were safe and would be returning home the next morning “due to the distress of the children.”
“I couldn’t sleep. This was not good communication.”
Korpan, who identified himself as a BIS student, like the missing girl, went on the same school trip during his year 8, said the school communicated the “best they could given the circumstances” and did not wish for people to get the wrong idea about what was happening.
Korpan said everyone was shocked by the ordeal and also passed on his condolences to the guide's family, for whom he had the highest respect. “His wife and child should always know that he gave his life to help others.”
He said that he hoped that Sei was safe and well.
Search Continues For BIS Student; Questions Raised About Trek Safety - The Jakarta Globe
River Bank Scoured for Missing Student
June 11, 2010
Zaky Pawas
River Bank Scoured for Missing Student
Search-and-rescue dogs, along with 1,000 personnel from the Indonesian Army and the police, scoured the Cisadane River until almost dawn on Friday for a British International School student who went missing in a flash flood during a field trip near Bogor on Tuesday.
“We resumed the search on Thursday night and ended it before dawn Friday. We resumed again around 5 a.m. on Friday, but we still haven’t found Kim Sei-young,” Caringin Police chief Adjutant Comr. Suhartono said on Friday afternoon. He added that 220 local residents took part in the late-night search, including rangers from Mount Halimun National Park.
“We will continue to search for her,” Suhartono said, adding that only the body of the guide, Ade Irfan Parlindungan, from Lembur Pancawati Outdoor Training, had been recovered.
“It is too early to say that Lembur Pancawati did anything wrong. Right now we are totally focused on finding the girl.”
Officers from the National Search and Rescue team, the National Police Elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob), Army Special Forces (Kopassus), local police, the Indonesian Red Cross and a host of other government agencies as well as local volunteers were involved in the search.
Suhartono said the field trip involved 22 students from the British International School, three instructors, three teachers and two medics. “The group was scheduled to hike between Villa Lembur Pancawati and Curug Cikarhuripan in Pancawati village,” he said.
Suhartono said Kim Sei-young slipped while the group was wading across the river and she was swept away by strong currents caused by a flash flood. Ade tried to grab her but also slipped and was carried away.
An inquiry team is being assembled to investigate the incident, according to a statement issued by the British International School.
A statement on the BIS Web site read: “The inquiry will be conducted as quickly and with as much tact as possible. When the inquiry has been completed the findings will be presented to all parents. We would like to once again to pass on our condolences to the family of the guide, Mr. Ade Arfan, as the search for Sei-young continues.”
River Bank Scoured for Missing Student - The Jakarta Globe
