Indonesia Deploys 655 Personnel to Search for 129 Missing After Virgo Transport 8 Ferry Capsizes
Banjarmasin, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities intensified their search operation on Monday for 129 people still missing after a passenger ferry capsized in rough seas in the Java Sea, as rescue teams raced against worsening weather conditions to locate survivors.
The ferry, named Virgo Transport 8, was travelling from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province on Borneo Island when it lost contact with authorities at around 2 a.m. local time on Sunday. According to I Putu Sudayana, head of the Banjarmasin Search and Rescue Office, the vessel’s captain had reported rough seas with waves reaching up to three metres before radioing a distress call indicating the ship was listing heavily to starboard. A passing helicopter later confirmed that the ferry had fully capsized, with authorities receiving the initial distress call roughly two hours after contact was first lost.
The vessel was carrying more than 240 people, comprising 59 adult passengers, one child, 126 drivers and vehicle assistants, and 27 crew and ship-related workers, according to officials. By Monday, search and rescue teams had recovered the bodies of six passengers and rescued 108 survivors, leaving 129 people still unaccounted for. National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) chief Mohammad Syafii said the search operation had expanded to 655 personnel deployed across 17 ships and five aircraft, including navy vessels and helicopters, with specialised underwater teams and navy-operated underwater thermal drones brought in to search inside and around the overturned hull. Officials cautioned, however, that rough seas and strong currents continued to hamper rescue efforts.
Survivors have described harrowing accounts of the disaster. One survivor, who goes by the single name Faisal, recounted how panic set in among passengers as the ship began to list, with people rushing toward the upper deck before the vessel eventually rolled over completely, leaving him and fourteen others stranded on a section of the hull that remained above water. According to Faisal, the stranded group repeatedly recited the Islamic call to prayer while battling exhaustion and rough seas as they awaited rescue, before a wave eventually swept him toward a lifeboat that helped save his life.
Authorities said the ferry had been carrying fewer passengers than its maximum stated capacity of 500 people, though officials acknowledged that actual passenger numbers aboard Indonesian ferries often differ from official manifests. Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands, relies heavily on ferries as a primary mode of inter-island transport, and accidents occur with some regularity, in part attributed to weak enforcement of maritime safety standards. The incident comes just weeks after a separate Indonesian ferry caught fire in rough seas near the tourist island of Bali, an accident from which at least 211 people were rescued, while one person was confirmed dead and several others remained unaccounted for at the time.
As the search for the 129 missing passengers continues into its second day, families have gathered at the rescue command centre in Banjarmasin to check passenger manifests and await further updates, with authorities pledging to sustain the multi-agency search effort for as long as conditions allow.
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