Around 140 passengers and crew members remained unaccounted for after a ferry carrying more than 240 people capsized in rough conditions in the Java Sea on Sunday, Indonesian rescue officials said.
Rescuers had pulled 102 people from the water and recovered one passenger’s body as search teams widened their operation around the ship’s last reported location.
The ferry was sailing from East Java toward South Kalimantan province when the incident occurred, according to authorities.
Before sending a distress alert, the captain reported severe conditions, including waves as high as 10 feet. He said the vessel was beginning to tilt, Sudayana said.
Officials later received reports that the ferry had overturned, said I Putu Sudayana, head of the local Search and Rescue Office.
The rescue agency in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, said it was alerted about two hours after contact with the Virgo Transport 8 was lost at approximately 2 a.m. Sunday.
The ferry had left Surabaya, East Java’s provincial capital and Indonesia’s second-largest city, bound for Banjarmasin on the island of Borneo.
“The ship’s operator notified authorities after learning that the vessel had run into bad weather,” Sudayana said during a video briefing.
A rescue vessel was sent toward the ferry’s estimated last known position, while officials deployed available personnel and equipment because of the large number of people aboard, he said.
The ferry was last believed to be in the Java Sea, roughly 92 miles from a pier in Banjarmasin.
According to the passenger manifest, 243 people were on board, including 213 passengers and 30 crew members. However, Indonesian authorities often find that the actual number of travelers differs from official manifests.
Sudayana, who is overseeing the search and rescue response, said teams were coordinating with maritime officials and other agencies while keeping a close watch on weather conditions in the area.
Search teams, assisted by nearby tugboats and other vessels, had rescued 102 people and recovered one body by Sunday afternoon, he said.
The ferry departed Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, at 10:33 a.m. Saturday and was scheduled to arrive in Banjarmasin at about 2 p.m. Sunday.
The Japanese-built Virgo Transport 8 is designed to transport both passengers and vehicles.
Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.
Last month, at least 211 people were rescued from an Indonesian ferry that caught fire in rough seas near the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, while one person was found dead and four others remain missing.
The incident happened less than two weeks after another Indonesian ferry, the Mutiara Sentosa 2, caught fire in waters off the main island of Java, leaving at least five people dead.
Sunday’s accident comes just four days after a fire that gutted a passenger ferry in the Philippines killed at least 76 people, with more than 10 others still missing.
