JAKARTA: One person died and more than 100 others were rescued on Sunday after a passenger ferry sailing between Indonesia’s Java and Borneo islands encountered bad weather, officials said.
The Virgo Transport 8, carrying 243 passengers and crew, lost contact with its shipping company early Sunday after departing from Surabaya in East Java for Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan.
Local search and rescue chief I Putu Sudayana said 103 people had been evacuated from the stricken vessel, with one passenger confirmed dead. Some of those rescued were expected to be taken to a port in East Java.
Rescuers battled waves of up to 2.5 metres as they worked to reach the ferry, which was last detected about 150 kilometres from its destination in the Java Sea.
“It is extremely risky for vessels. Even our Basarnas vessel, which is 40 metres long, is at great risk,” Sudayana told reporters in Banjarmasin, referring to Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency.
The rescue official earlier told AFP that the ship’s captain had reported the vessel was “tilting” before contact was lost. Authorities have not yet provided further details about the ferry’s condition or the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Rescuers deployed teams, ships and a helicopter to search the vessel’s last known position, while monitoring the dangerous weather conditions.
Ferry Accidents Raise Safety Concerns
Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands that relies heavily on boats and ferries for daily transportation and tourism.
Lax safety standards and unpredictable weather have contributed to repeated maritime disasters in the country.
Last month, a ferry fire in the Lombok Strait killed one person and left five others missing, while 211 people were rescued. The vessel had been traveling from Bali to Lombok when it encountered trouble on August 12.
In July, a ferry carrying more than 70 people sank near Selayar, a small island south of Sulawesi.
A separate search operation was also underway for a speedboat carrying eight people, including five journalists covering the eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau in Banten province.
The journalists had been reporting on the volcanic activity, which disrupted operations at Jakarta’s main airport and several others.
The search for the Virgo Transport 8 remains ongoing, with authorities working to account for all passengers and crew aboard the vessel.
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