Amid bad weather conditions in the Java Sea, a ferry trip carrying 243 passengers turned into a massive rescue operation, which has so far ended with the rescue of 102 people and the death of one passenger, according to Indonesian authorities.
On Sunday, the Indonesian Rescue Authority announced the sinking of the Virgo Transport 8 ferry, confirming the rescue of 102 of its passengers and the death of one person.
“The total number of passengers who were evacuated is 103,” the head of the local rescue teams, I Putu Sodayana, told reporters in the coastal city of Banjarmasin on the island of Borneo, noting that one of them died.
Contact with the ferry was lost while it was sailing in bad weather from Surabaya to another coastal city.
“We received a report about the loss of contact with the Virgo Transport 8 ship, and we immediately deployed personnel and the rescue ship Laxmana 241 to the estimated last known location,” the head of the Banjarmasin search and rescue office said.
The office, based in the capital of South Kalimantan province, explained that it had received a report that the ship had suffered a communications malfunction while sailing to the city coming from Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia and located in East Java province.
Preliminary information indicated that the ferry’s last known location was in the Java Sea, about 148 kilometers from the pier in Banjarmasin.
In the first phase of the accident, no casualties were reported, while the authorities said that the ship operator reported the accident after receiving information that the ferry encountered bad weather.
Indonesia, an archipelago of about 17,000 islands, relies heavily on ferries as a main means of transportation, as sea routes are less expensive and more available than air travel.
However, safety standards are not always strictly enforced, resulting in a relatively high rate of marine accidents.
