INDONESIAN RESCUE CREWS SEARCH FOR 140 MISSING FROM PASSENGER SHIP

Indonesian rescue crews were searching on Sunday for 140 people after a passenger ship lost contact in the Java Sea during bad weather. The Virgo Transport 8, carrying more than 240 people, departed Surabaya in East Java on Saturday bound for Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan before losing contact at approximately 2am on Sunday. The ship's operator reported the incident to authorities after receiving information that the vessel had encountered bad weather. According to I Putu Sudayana, head of the search and rescue agency's Banjarmasin office, 103 people had been evacuated using different ships, with one person dying during the evacuation.

Rescuers deployed teams, ships and a helicopter towards the passenger vessel's last known position. The search and rescue office in Banjarmasin, located on Borneo island, received notification of the incident two hours after contact was lost with the Virgo Transport 8. Sudayana said those evacuated would be taken to an East Java port, though he did not state what caused the ship to lose contact or its current status.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, relies heavily on ferries for transportation, with sea routes offering more affordable and readily available alternatives to air travel. Safety standards are not always rigorously enforced across the maritime sector, according to reported assessments. The search operation remained ongoing as of Sunday.