The Indonesian authorities today resumed relief operations to try to save 129 missing persons after the sinking of a ferry connecting the islands of Java and Borneo in an accident that has already caused at least six deaths.
© Lusa
14/09/2026
by
Lusa
The Virgo Transport 8 carried 213 passengers and 30 crew members and had left on Saturday in Surabaya, Java, heading to Banjarmasin, Borneo, losing contact on Sunday morning. The head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, Mohammad Syafii, confirmed six dead, 129 missing and 108 survivors.
Five aircraft and 17 ships, including marine units, were deployed for operations, which focus on six delimited sectors, with priority to locate victims on the surface.
Divers and underwater drones will be used to search inside and around the vessel, already located.
According to Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi, the ferry was not overcrowded, carrying fewer passengers than the maximum capacity of 500, but faced a busy sea with waves over 2.5 metres.
Sea accidents are frequent in Indonesia, an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands dependent on sea links due to insufficient safety standards and unpredictable weather conditions.
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.
The previous week, contact was lost with a speedboat with eight people aboard the volcano Anak Krakatau, including five journalists, and the search was still ongoing.