Divers pull three more bodies from the Virgo Transport 8 as the Java Sea death toll reaches nine

Indonesian navy divers recovered the bodies of two men and a woman from the capsized ferry Virgo Transport 8 on 18 September, raising the confirmed death toll to nine. About 126 people remain missing. One hundred and eight were rescued on the day the ship went over. Those two numbers have barely moved since Sunday.

The 4,277-tonne, 119-metre ferry left Surabaya in East Java on 12 September for Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan with 213 passengers, 30 crew and 89 vehicles on the manifest. Around 2:00 a.m. WITA on 13 September the captain reported that the ship was listing in waves of about three metres. Contact was lost shortly afterward. The wreck was found in the Masalembo waters of the Java Sea, about 148 kilometres from Banjarmasin.

Why the divers waited five days

Basarnas and the navy put 17 ships, five aircraft and about 1,100 people on the search. Some 60 divers from the navy and the rescue agency could not get inside the hull for days. Arianto Ardi, operations head at the Basarnas Banjarmasin office, cited current, depth and the way the ferry was lying. Waves of 2.5 metres and wind kept surface teams off the wreck. The ship drifted about 1.8 nautical miles, then 453 metres southeast of its first position, and settled on the seabed at 29 metres. It had been at about 21 metres when first found.

On Friday, Col. Galih Nurna Putra, commander of the Banjarmasin Naval Base, said divers entered through a window and brought out three bodies, which will go to Banjarmasin. Yudhi Bramantyo, operations director at the national rescue agency, said salvage gear is now on station. The plan is to right the ship so divers are not working on a capsized hull. “As long as the ship is still at the seabed, the dive team dared only to remain outside the ship,” a navy officer said before the window entry.

The ferry was built in Japan in 1987 and worked there until last year. PT Virgo Karya Shipping operates it. Passenger counts on Indonesian inter-island routes often diverge from manifests. Investigators have not issued a cause. Weather is the fact they have. Design, loading of the 89 vehicles, and the last steering orders are the facts they do not yet have.

What the families are waiting on

For five days the official board has read: 108 alive, six then nine dead, more than 120 unaccounted for. Each recovered body changes the third number by one and does not close the case. Righting a 119-metre ro-ro at 29 metres in current is a multi-day job. If the hull can be opened, the missing list will move. If it cannot, the Java Sea keeps them.

Indonesia’s ferry record is long and grim. This accident is already among the more serious of the decade because of how many people are still inside or unaccounted for. The next useful bulletin is not a promise. It is a count: how many more bodies come off the wreck, and whether the salvage team can turn the ship before the weather closes the site again.