Rescuers searching for 140 people after missing Indonesian passenger ship located
The Indonesian passenger ship carrying 243 people was reported missing after losing contact early on Sunday during bad weather.
An Indonesian passenger ship carrying 243 people disappeared in the Java Sea on Sunday after losing contact during rough weather. The vessel, Virgo Transport 8, had set sail from Surabaya, East Java, on Saturday, bound for Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan. Head of the Banjarmasin office of the search and rescue agency, I Putu Sudayana, announced that 103 passengers had been evacuated using various ships, some of whom would be transported to an East Java port.
Rescuers mobilized a team, several ships, and a helicopter to locate the missing vessel at its last known coordinates, though the fate of the ship remains unknown. As an archipelago with 17,000 islands, Indonesia heavily relies on ferries for transportation, finding them more cost-effective and readily available than air travel.
However, the country's maritime safety standards are often not strictly enforced, leading to a higher-than-average accident rate.
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- Indonesian rescue crews searching for 140 people after ferry hit bad weather theguardian.com
- Indonesian ferry carrying 243 people reported missing at sea freemalaysiatoday.com
