Indonesia continues search for at least 129 missing after ferry capsizes; 6 bodies recovered

BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — The search is continuing for at least 129 people missing after a ferry overturned in bad weather in Indonesia ‘s Java Sea on Sunday.

More than 100 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 on board, was traveling from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province, on Borneo Island, officials said.

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

The captain had reported rough seas with waves up to 10 feet 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.

Contact was lost with the Virgo Transport 8 about 2 a.m. Sunday, and the rescue agency in Banjarmasin said it received a report two hours later.

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

Survivors rescued, bodies recovered

Initial information indicated the vessel’s last known position was in the Java Sea, about 92 miles 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 coordinating the search, said search teams, assisted by nearby tugboats and other passing vessels, had rescued 107 people and recovered six bodies by Sunday afternoon.

The 390-foot Virgo Transport 8 ferry was built in Japan in 1987 and operated there until last year before being sold to the current Indonesian operator, PT Virgo Karya Shipping.

Transportation 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 Sunday.

Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency on Sunday showed an overturned ferry floating in choppy waters during a helicopter search operation. Separate footage captured exhausted survivors disembarking from a rescue ship at a port in Banjarmasin, while injured victims were carried on stretchers before being taken by ambulances to nearby hospitals.

Distraught relatives wait for news at a port

Hundreds of relatives gathered at a command center 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 Bunga, who, like many Indonesians, goes by a single name. “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.

At least 211 people were rescued from an Indonesian ferry that caught fire last month in rough seas near the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, while one person was found dead and four others remained missing. The incident happened less than two weeks after another Indonesian ferry, the Mutiara Sentosa 2, caught fire off the main island of Java, with the loss of at least five people.

Satria and Karmini write for the Associated Press. Karmini reported from Jakarta. AP journalists Fadlan Syam in Jakarta and Edna Tarigan and Andi Jatmiko in Pontianak, Indonesia, contributed to this report.