Indonesia rescue agency recovers another victim from capsized ship, will continue search
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
A handout photo on Sept 20 by Basarnas showing rescue officials carrying body bags with the remains of victims recovered from the Virgo Transport 8 ship accident, upon arrival by helicopter at Syamsudin Noor Airport in Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan.
PHOTO: AFP
- Indonesia's national search and rescue agency recovered another victim from the capsized Virgo Transport 8 in the Java Sea, which sank on Sept 13 with 243 people aboard.
- Ten deaths have been confirmed, over 100 survivors rescued, and 125 people remain missing amid ongoing search efforts.
- The recovery and salvage operations have been extended by a week due to the large number of missing and the complexity of righting the sunken ship.
AI generated
JAKARTA – The Indonesian authorities will continue searching on Sept 21 for more than a hundred people still missing after a passenger ship sank in the Java Sea last weekend, with the confirmed death toll now at 10, its search and rescue agency Basarnas said.
The Virgo Transport 8 vessel was carrying 243 people, including 30 crew members, when it capsized in bad weather early on Sept 13 during a 20-hour voyage from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan.
“Hopefully the weather at the site will be favourable (tomorrow)... so more victims trapped inside the ship can be evacuated,” said Basarnas official I Putu Sudayana at a press conference on Sept 20.
On Sept 21, the agency will send a remotely operated vehicle into the vessel to help guide the divers during the operation, he added.
The divers recovered one more body on Sept 20 from inside the ship’s hull, after finding three victims on Sept 18. Following the latest operation, which Putu said was hampered by strong currents, 125 passengers remained unaccounted for and 108 people had survived.
Basarnas said earlier that the 10th victim will be airlifted out for identification. The search and evacuation operation will be continued using divers and also air support, it said.
On Sept 19, the authorities said nine people had been confirmed dead and more than 100 people had survived, leaving 126 unaccounted for.
Rescue specialists sorting through items recovered during the search operation for victims of the Virgo Transport 8 ferry, at Trisakti Port in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan province, Indonesia, on Sept 18.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The recovery operation for the sunken ship was extended by another week due to the number of missing people and because the salvage operation to right the ship is expected to take time, the authorities added. REUTERS