Indonesia rescuers battle turbulent seas in search of 129 people after passenger ship capsizes

JAKARTA/SURABAYA – Hundreds of Indonesian rescuers, including the coast guard and the navy, struggled on Sept 14 to board a passenger ship that capsized in the Java Sea at the weekend as they searched for the 129 people still missing, officials said, with the confirmed death toll at six.

The Virgo Transport 8 ship, carrying 243 people, went missing in bad weather early on Sept 13, the rescue agency said. The authorities have since rescued 108 people from the ship, which was travelling from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan.

Choppy waters with high waves and strong winds were impeding the search on Sept 14, said Mohammad Syafii, head of the national rescue agency.

The agency has deployed at least 622 personnel, 17 ships, five helicopters and aircraft to find the missing passengers, Syafii added. Some of the ships have arrived at the location, but it was difficult for rescuers to make their way into the capsized and partially submerged ship, he said.

“We would also deploy personnel with underwater rescue skills, but the current conditions do not allow us to,” he said.

“While waiting for the weather conditions to improve, we are identifying more personnel with special skills,” he said, adding that the death toll remained at six.

In a video shared by the rescue agency, a large red-and-black ship lies capsized and partially submerged in choppy blue water, with its red-painted underside visible above the surface. Two small boats, each carrying people, can be seen floating in rough waters near the capsized ship.

The location of the capsized boat is around 80 nautical miles (nearly 150km) from the command centre at Trisakti Port in Banjarmasin, another official at the rescue agency told Reuters.

“The conditions there are quite windy, making it difficult for the (rescue) vessels to dock,” said the official, Arianto Ardi.

3m wave crashes into ship

The weather was very poor when the incident happened, with waves as high as 3m crashing into the ship, Syafii said.

It takes around five hours to reach the location from Trisakti Port in good weather, but it requires up to nine hours in rough conditions.

On Sept 13, Edy Prakoso, another official at the national rescue agency, said the ship leaned heavily to one side after strong waves hit its starboard side.

Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said the capsized ship had the capacity to carry 500 passengers, so it was not overloaded.

The incident took place in the Java Sea, the waters between Indonesia’s four most populated islands of Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Borneo, and the site of some of Indonesia’s deadliest maritime disasters.

In 1981, the ship Tampomas II sank in the area, killing nearly 600 people, by some estimates. There was also a plane crash in the same area in 2007 that killed more than 100 people.

Freddy Manuhua has been anxiously awaiting news of his brother Stefiyansah at Surabaya port since Sept 13. His brother had worked as a keyboard player for the ship’s entertainment show for the past two months.

He remembers taking his brother, who was very excited about his new job, to Surabaya port on Sept 12 before the vessel left for Banjarmasin.

“I will accept whatever happens and would be grateful if I could still see my younger brother again, no matter what condition he is in,” he said.

Indonesia relies on ferries across its 17,000 islands, with sea travel cheaper and more accessible than flying, and there have been numerous accidents.

In August, two passenger ferries caught fire in separate incidents, killing six people – five off Madura Island and one on a route from the island of Bali. REUTERS