Search underway for about 130 people after Indonesian ferry overturns

A ferry overturned in bad weather in Indonesia’s Java Sea on Sunday, leaving about 130 passengers and crew missing, rescuers said. At least 107 people were rescued and the bodies of six passengers were recovered as the search operation expanded around the vessel’s last known position.

The ferry with more than 240 people was travelling from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province, on Borneo Island, officials said.

The vessel’s captain had reported rough seas with waves up to three metres before issuing a distress call, saying the ship was listing, said I Putu Sudayana, who heads the Banjarmasin Search and Rescue Office. Authorities later received information indicating the vessel had overturned.

The rescue agency in Banjarmasin said it received a report two hours after contact was lost with the Virgo Transport 8 at about 2 a.m. on Sunday.

A rescue ship was headed to the vessel’s last known position, Sudayana said, and by Sunday afternoon authorities were deploying teams supported by eight vessels, including four navy ships, and two helicopters.

Survivors rescued, dead bodies recovered

Initial information indicated the vessel’s last known position was in the Java Sea, about 148 kilometres from Banjarmasin. The ship’s manifest said it was carrying 243 people — 213 passengers and 30 crew members — although it is common in Indonesia for the number of passengers to differ from the manifest. The vessel was also transporting 89 vehicles.

Sudayana, who is co-ordinating the search, said teams, assisted by nearby tugboats and other passing vessels, had rescued 107 people and recovered six bodies by Sunday afternoon.

The 119-metre Virgo Transport 8 ferry was built in Japan in 1987.

Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said aerial searches showed the ferry was floating upside down and had not sunk. Rescuers were concentrating search efforts around the overturned ferry, he told reporters.

Distraught relatives wait for news at port

Hundreds of relatives gathered at a command centre in Banjarmasin’s Trisakti port, awaiting word on family members believed to be aboard the ferry. Many anxiously checked passenger manifests and rescue lists as authorities continued searching for survivors.

“I was shocked when I saw my uncle’s name on the passenger list,” said a woman who goes by a single name, Bunga. “But I felt relieved after officials told me he had been rescued.”

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.

Last month, at least 211 people were rescued from an Indonesian ferry that caught fire in rough seas near the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, while one person was found dead and four others remain missing.

The incident happened less than two weeks after another Indonesian ferry, the Mutiara Sentosa 2, caught fire in waters off the main island of Java, leaving at least five people dead.

Sunday’s accident comes just four days after a fire that gutted a passenger ferry in the Philippines killed at least 76 people, with at least 10 others still missing.