Indonesian search teams intensified operations Monday for 129 people still missing after a passenger ferry overturned in rough seas the day before, with the confirmed death toll holding steady at six.
The Virgo Transport 8, carrying 243 people, capsized early Sunday while sailing from Surabaya on the island of Java to Banjarmasin on Borneo, according to the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas). The vessel’s captain issued a distress call reporting the ship was listing in waves as high as three meters before it lost contact with its operator.
Basarnas chief Mohammad Syafii said 622 personnel, 17 ships and aircraft were involved in Monday’s search, with specialized underwater teams and navy drones deployed to speed up efforts to locate survivors and recover the missing. Officials said 108 people had been rescued and six bodies recovered by Sunday, aided by nearby tugboats and passing vessels that joined the initial response.
Aerial surveys showed the 119-meter ferry — built in Japan in 1987 and only recently transferred to Indonesian operator PT Virgo Karya Shipping — floating upside down rather than fully sunk, according to Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi, who said search efforts were concentrated around the overturned hull. He added the vessel had capacity for 500 passengers and was not overloaded at the time it went down.
Indonesia, an archipelago of some 17,000 islands where ferries remain a cheaper and more common alternative to flying, has experienced a string of maritime accidents in recent months, including two separate ferry fires last month that killed a combined six people off Madura and near Bali. Weak enforcement of safety standards has repeatedly been cited as a contributing factor in the country’s frequent shipping disasters.
