Ferry Capsizes in Indonesia's Java Sea, 130 Missing
The ferry Virgo Transport 8 capsized Sunday in the Java Sea with 243 people aboard, en route to Banjarmasin. Six died, and the search for dozens missing continues amid waves up to three meters.
While the world’s attention this week is split between election season in the Balkans and the wars in the Middle East, Southeast Asia offers a reminder that sea travel there, where ferries carry the load that highways and railways carry in Europe, remains one of the most dangerous modes of transport on the planet. Indonesia has recorded its third serious maritime accident in the past month, and the latest one, off the island of Borneo, is so far also the deadliest in terms of how many people are still listed as missing.
The ferry Virgo Transport 8 set sail on Saturday from Surabaya, on East Java, carrying 243 people, 213 passengers and 30 crew members, along with 89 vehicles in its hold. Its destination was Banjarmasin, a port city in South Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, Basarnas, says the ship lost contact with its operator in the early hours of Sunday morning, while The Week, citing local sources, reports that contact was lost around 2:33 a.m. local time.
The sea grew rough ahead of the accident, with waves reaching up to three meters. According to I Putu Sudajana, head of the search and rescue office in Banjarmasin, the ferry’s captain first reported to the ship’s owner that the vessel was listing, and a distress call followed soon after. Basarnas received word that the ship was missing only two hours after contact was lost, according to the Associated Press. Indonesia’s Transport Ministry confirmed in a statement that the ferry had capsized, and Minister Dudi Purwagandi told reporters that an aerial search showed the vessel floating upside down rather than having sunk, which is why rescue teams are concentrating their search around the wreck.
“For ships, it’s extremely risky. Even our Basarnas vessel, which is 40 meters long, is in serious danger,” said I Putu Sudajana, describing the conditions in which crews are searching for the missing.
There is some disagreement between sources over the exact figures. Basarnas and AFP, whose reporting was carried by Al Jazeera, put the number at 130 missing and 107 rescued, while the Associated Press reports 129 people unaccounted for and 108 rescued. All sources agree on six confirmed dead, whose bodies have been recovered. Estimates of the distance from the ship’s last known position to Banjarmasin also vary only slightly: Al Jazeera and The Week put it at around 80 nautical miles, while AP gives a figure of 148 kilometers, or 92 miles.
The tanker Mauhau, owned by Pertamina Patra Niaga, was first to reach the scene and picked up 16 people, including the ferry’s captain. One of those rescued suffered a leg injury. More than a dozen vessels have since joined the search, including four navy ships, along with two helicopters, and Basarnas says waves of around 2.5 meters are still hampering the crews’ work on site.
“Our main focus and top priority right now is the safety of everyone who was on board,” said Heri Purwanto of the Banjarmasin Port Authority.
The ferry is 119 meters long and was built in Japan in 1987, when it sailed under the name Ferry Kurushima. Indonesian operator PT Virgo Karya Shipping bought the vessel only last year. The cause of the capsizing has not yet been determined, and the investigation, as reported by Al Jazeera, is looking into both weather conditions and the possibility of a technical failure.
The accident off Banjarmasin follows a string of similar incidents in the region. Last month, a fire on a ferry sailing between Bali and Lombok killed one person and left five missing. A week before that, the ferry Mutiara Sentosa 2 caught fire off Java, killing at least five. Just four days before the Virgo Transport 8 capsized, a ferry fire in the Philippines killed at least 76 people. Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, relies heavily on ferries as a cheaper alternative to air travel, and experts have for decades attributed accidents like this one to weak enforcement of safety regulations.
In Banjarmasin, hundreds of relatives are still gathering at the command center at Trisakti port, combing through passenger and survivor lists in search of their loved ones’ names. Basarnas says the search for the missing will continue as long as there is even a small chance of finding someone alive, while the final toll from the accident remains open for now.
