Indonesian Ferry Overturns in Java Sea; About 140 Missing as Rescue Widens
About 140 passengers and crew are missing after the ferry Virgo Transport 8 overturned in the Java Sea; at least 102 were rescued and one body recovered.
Indonesian search and rescue teams are scouring the Java Sea for roughly 140 passengers and crew missing after a ferry carrying more than 240 people overturned in bad weather on Sunday.
At least 102 people have been rescued and the body of one passenger recovered, as the operation widened across waters around the vessel's last known position. A rescue ship was dispatched to that location, and authorities said they were mobilising all available personnel and assets because of the large number of people on board.
According to I Putu Sudayana, who heads the Search and Rescue Office in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, the captain had earlier reported rough seas with waves reaching up to 3 metres (10 feet) before sending a distress message that the ship was listing. Officials later received information indicating the vessel had overturned.
The Banjarmasin rescue agency said it was alerted about two hours after contact with the Virgo Transport 8 was lost, at around 2 a.m. Sunday. The ferry had departed Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city in East Java province, bound for Banjarmasin on Borneo Island.
Initial information placed the vessel's last known position in the Java Sea, about 148 kilometres (92 miles) from a pier in Banjarmasin. The ship's manifest listed 243 people on board — 213 passengers and 30 crew — though passenger counts in Indonesia frequently differ from the manifest.
"We have carried out search operations for the victims to the fullest extent," Sudayana said. "By 12:00pm (04:00 GMT), several passengers had already been successfully evacuated by the responding units."
Search efforts have drawn on helicopters operating from a navy airbase in Surabaya, with crew members scanning the sea with binoculars, alongside surface vessels combing the area.