One person died and 102 were rescued after the sinking of a ferry linking the Indonesian island of Java to Borneo, during adverse weather conditions, announced today the relief teams.
© Getty Images/ INFUZ / AFP
13/09/2026
by
Lusa
“ Podemos announce that the total number of passengers rescued is 103 people”, indicated the local chief of rescue teams, I Putu Sudayana, quoted by AFP.
One of the victims rescued died, and the same person responsible for journalists in the port town of Banjarmasin, on the island of Borneo, where the ship was headed.
The Indonesian television station Kompas TV has been broadcasting images of the rescue operation in which several small lifeboats are sighted with people on board, in the area of the shipwreck.
The Indonesian authorities reported this morning that they lost contact during the early hours with a passenger ship carrying 243 people on a route through the Java Sea and that it was south of Borneo Island.
The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) indicated through a statement that the ferry “Virgo Transport 8”, which made the route between the cities of Surabaya — on the island of Java — and Banjarmasin — in southern Borneo — stopped transmitting its position around 1:00 a.m., local time (18:00 Saturday in Lisbon).
According to the preliminary report of the rescue agency, during the last contact, the crew reported that the vessel was facing “adverse weather conditions” and the last coordinates are located the ship about 80 nautical miles southwest of the locality of Basirih in Banjarmasin, southern Borneo.
They followed 243 people on board, according to the number updated by Basarnas – who first referred to 240 people.
Basarnas mobilized several vessels for the search and rescue operation, which were hampered by waves that, in some cases, reach 2.5 meters high, according to the same source.
“It is extremely risky for vessels. Even our ship from Basarnas, 40 meters long, is in great danger”, said Sudayana.
According to the local chief of rescue teams, the ferry captain reported overnight to his company that the ship “was leaning.”.
Sea accidents are common in Indonesia due to poor infrastructure, burden of passengers and goods, low compliance with safety standards and adverse weather conditions.
The boat is one of the main means of transport in the Indonesian archipelago, consisting of more than 17,000 islands and a population of more than 270 million inhabitants.
In 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry wrecked one of the deepest lakes in the world, on Sumatra Island, in one of the worst accidents of this kind in recent history.