The Indonesian ferry sinking in the Java Sea

The passenger ferry Virgo Transport 8, carrying 243 people (213 passengers and 30 crew, plus 89 vehicles) from Surabaya on Java to Banjarmasin on Borneo, lost contact with its operator in the early hours of 13 September while crossing the Java Sea in a storm; the captain had reported waves up to 3 meters and a distress call saying the ship was listing before contact was lost. Aerial searches the next day found the 119-meter ferry, built in Japan in 1987, floating capsized rather than sunk, roughly 150km from Banjarmasin. Indonesia's search and rescue agency (Basarnas) deployed hundreds of personnel, a dozen ships including four navy vessels, and helicopters, hampered by high waves, strong winds and choppy water that prevented underwater rescue teams from working.

By the second day of the search, 108 people had been rescued and six bodies recovered, leaving at least 129 people still missing; officials said it was common in Indonesia for passenger counts to differ from a ship's manifest, complicating the accounting. The disaster came weeks after a separate ferry fire between Bali and Lombok killed one and left five missing, and months after another ferry sank near Selayar Island in July, renewing scrutiny of safety standards on Indonesia's inter-island ferry routes.