Indonesia hunts for 129 missing after Virgo Transport 8 capsizes in the Java Sea

Basarnas, Indonesia's national search and rescue agency, spent Monday trying to put divers and navy underwater drones onto an overturned hull in the Java Sea while 129 people from the ferry Virgo Transport 8 remained unaccounted for. By nightfall the confirmed count still stood at six dead and 108 rescued. Rough water off Masalembo kept rescue boats from tying up to the wreck.

The ship left Tanjung Perak in Surabaya at 10:33 on Saturday, 13 September, bound for Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, a regular overnight run between Java and Borneo. The manifest listed 243 people: 213 passengers and 30 crew, plus 89 vehicles. Among the passengers were 59 adults travelling as passengers, one child, and 126 drivers and vehicle assistants. Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said the vessel is certified for 500 passengers and was not overloaded.

Contact dropped at about 2 a.m. local time on Sunday. The captain had already reported waves of up to three metres and a heavy list to starboard. Authorities received a distress call from the operator, PT Virgo, around 4:10 a.m., roughly two hours after radio silence. A helicopter later confirmed the ferry was upside down in the Masalembo waters, about 148 kilometres from Banjarmasin and some 150 kilometres from its planned arrival berth. The scheduled docking time had been 2 p.m. Sunday.

Survivor Rinto Arahap, 33, told AFP that many people were asleep when the ship began to lean. He said he heard what sounded like metal breaking about five hours into the crossing. Passengers climbed onto tables, pushed toward the upper deck, and fought for life jackets. Other survivors at the temporary medical post at Trisakti Port in Banjarmasin described the same scramble in the dark.

On Sunday, search teams working with tugboats and passing ships pulled 108 people from the water and recovered six bodies. On Monday, Basarnas chief Mohammad Syafii said at least 622 personnel were on the water and in the air, using 17 vessels and five aircraft, including navy ships and helicopters. A later count put the force nearer 655. Official Arianto Ardi said wind made it hard for rescue boats to dock against the hull. As of Monday afternoon, none of the 129 missing had been found, and weather still blocked a full interior search.

Basarnas said divers and navy-operated underwater drones would look inside and around the overturned hull once the sea allowed it. Agency official Edy Prakoso said on Sunday that strong waves had hit the starboard side and forced the ship over. Videos released by the agency showed the white hull floating inverted in choppy water during a helicopter pass.

Indonesia's passenger manifests often differ from the number of people actually on board. Officials have not published a revised headcount. Families gathered at Trisakti Port through Sunday and Monday waiting for names. BBC correspondents described relatives standing under port sheds as lists were read out and as bodies were brought ashore.

The Java Sea corridor between East Java and South Kalimantan carries freight trucks, private cars and ordinary passengers on routes that run in monsoon weather as a matter of routine. Waves of 2.5 to 3 metres are high for a loaded vehicle ferry but not rare on that stretch in September. What matters for investigators is how fast water reached the vehicle deck and whether the lashings on the 89 vehicles held as the list grew.

The wreck sits near Masalembo, a cluster of islands in the middle of the sea rather than close to either coast. That location lengthens every shuttle of fuel, divers and bodies. Strong current around the inverted hull also raises the risk that people still inside the lower decks will be harder to reach if the ship settles or floods further. Local search chief I Putu Sudayana said waves of about 2.5 metres were still running across the search box on Sunday.

Purwagandhi's statement that the ship was within its passenger certificate answers one immediate question and leaves others open: how the vehicles were secured, whether water entered through vehicle-deck openings, and how fast the list grew after the starboard hits. Those points sit with investigators once the search is no longer the first task.

By Monday evening the arithmetic was unchanged from the morning: 108 living, six dead, 129 missing, 243 on the paper list. The next useful number will be how many of the missing Basarnas can reach inside the hull when the wind drops.