Indonesia searches Java Sea for 129 missing after Virgo Transport 8 capsizes

Indonesian search crews spent Monday combing the Java Sea for 129 people still missing after the passenger ferry Virgo Transport 8 overturned in rough water on Sunday. By Monday morning the National Search and Rescue Agency, Basarnas, had counted 108 people pulled alive and six bodies recovered.

The ship's manifest listed 243 people: 213 passengers and 30 crew, plus 89 vehicles. The passenger list broke down as 59 adult passengers, one child, 126 drivers and vehicle assistants, and 27 workers tied to the ship. Indonesian officials note that actual headcounts on domestic ferries often differ from the paper manifest.

Virgo Transport 8 left Surabaya in East Java at 10:33 on Saturday. It was due in Banjarmasin, on the southern coast of Borneo, at 14:00 on Sunday. The last reported position was in the Masalembo waters, about 148 kilometres from Banjarmasin and about 150 kilometres from the intended arrival port, around 02:00 on Sunday.

The captain reported waves of up to three metres and a heavy list to starboard before contact dropped. Authorities received a distress call about two hours later. A passing helicopter later confirmed the hull was upside down in choppy water. Basarnas released video of the overturned ferry from the air on Sunday.

Rinto Arahap, 33, a survivor who spoke to AFP from a stretcher in Banjarmasin, said many passengers were asleep when the ship began to list around 02:00. He heard what sounded like metal breaking about five hours into the voyage. People climbed onto tables. Some pushed each other for life jackets. Waves were more than two metres. He said the crew gave no warning. Someone among the passengers started shouting that the ship was listing.

The first rescue ship reached a pier in Banjarmasin before nightfall on Sunday. Survivors were taken to a temporary medical post at Trisakti Port. Families gathered at the port and at the departure side in Surabaya.

On Monday Basarnas chief Mohammad Syafii said 622 personnel were on the water and in the air, working from 17 vessels and five aircraft, including navy ships and helicopters. Divers and navy-operated underwater drones were being sent to look inside and around the hull. Rough seas and strong currents were slowing that work. Syafii said the agency still hoped to find more survivors.

I Putu Sudayana, who heads the Banjarmasin Search and Rescue Office, said the captain had reported the list before the distress call. Heri Purwanto, head of the Banjarmasin Sea Port Authority, said the ship also lost contact with its company at 02:00 and that the port responded as soon as the report came in.

The cause is not yet fixed. Weather is the first explanation on the table. The Java Sea in mid-September can throw up short, steep waves on the Surabaya-Banjarmasin run. Investigators will also look at loading of the 89 vehicles, stability of a 119-metre hull, and whether the crew acted once the list began. Arahap's account, if it holds, points to a late warning and a scramble on the upper deck.

Indonesia's domestic ferry record is long and grim. Overloading, ageing hulls and thin weather windows have produced repeated disasters on the Java-Borneo and Java-Sumatra routes. Each new case produces the same sequence: a manifest that may not match the people on board, a search that turns from rescue to recovery as hours pass, and a political promise to tighten inspection.

The arithmetic on Monday was still open. 108 alive, six dead, 129 unaccounted for. If the manifest is complete, that is 243. If extra passengers boarded in Surabaya without tickets, the missing number moves. Basarnas has said it is common for the two figures to diverge.

Night search is harder in the Java Sea. Debris drifts. Currents around Masalembo pull wreckage and people in different directions. The overturned hull itself may still hold bodies in vehicle decks. That is why the drones and divers matter, and why the weather window on Monday and Tuesday will decide how much of the ship can be entered.

For families at Trisakti Port the useful fact is narrower. The search is large. The sea is still rough. The agency has not closed the survivor window. The names on the missing list will not be final until the hull is searched and the manifest is checked against those who walked off the rescue ships.