Indonesian rescuers search for 140 missing after ferry loses contact in Java Sea

Indonesian rescuers were searching on Sunday for 140 people from a ⁠passenger ship that was earlier reported missing in the Java Sea ​after 103 others were evacuated, ‌one of whom ‌died, a search and rescue agency official said.

A passenger ship carrying more than 240 people was reported missing after losing contact during bad weather in the Java Sea early on Sunday, the country’s ⁠search and rescue agency said.

The Virgo ⁠Transport 8 ship set sail ​on Saturday from ‌the East Java ‌city of Surabaya to the South ‌Kalimantan city of Banjarmasin before losing contact.

I Putu Sudayana, the head of the agency’s Banjarmasin office, ​said in a video statement that 103 people had been evacuated using different ships and some of them would be taken to an East Java port.

Rescuers launched a search, deploying a ⁠team, ships and a helicopter toward the passenger vessel’s last ​known position, ​he said, without stating what happened ​to the ship.

The search and rescue office in the city of Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, which is located on Borneo island, said it received a report two hours after contact was lost with the Virgo Transport 8 at about 2am on Sunday.

“The ship’s operator reported the incident to authorities after receiving information that the vessel had encountered bad weather,” Sudayana, who heads the search and rescue office, said in a video briefing.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, relies ⁠heavily on ferries as a key mode ​of ​transportation, with sea ​routes more affordable and readily ​available than ‌air travel.

However, ​safety ​standards are not always rigorously enforced, resulting in a relatively high accident rate.

This is a developing story