Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Rescue teams were searching on Sunday for at least 129 people missing after a ferry overturned in bad weather in Indonesia’s Java Sea, officials said. At least 108 people had been rescued and six bodies were recovered as the operation widened around the vessel’s last known position.
The ferry, carrying more than 240 people, was travelling from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan on Borneo island. Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said aerial searches showed the ferry was floating upside down and had not sunk, and rescuers were focusing their efforts around the overturned vessel.
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I Putu Sudayana, who heads the Banjarmasin Search and Rescue Office, said the captain had reported rough seas with waves of up to 3 metres before sending a distress call saying the ship was listing. Authorities later received information that the vessel had overturned. The rescue agency in Banjarmasin said it received a report about two hours after contact was lost with the Virgo Transport 8 at about 2 am on Sunday.
A rescue ship was sent to the ferry’s last known position, and by Sunday afternoon authorities were deploying teams backed by a dozen vessels, including four navy ships, and two helicopters. Sudayana, who is coordinating the search, said that by Sunday afternoon teams, helped by nearby tugboats and other passing vessels, had rescued 107 people and recovered six bodies.
Initial information placed the ferry in the Java Sea, about 148 kilometres from Banjarmasin. The ship’s manifest said it was carrying 243 people, including 213 passengers and 30 crew members, though it is common in Indonesia for the actual number of passengers to differ from the manifest. The vessel was also transporting 89 vehicles.
The 119-metre Virgo Transport 8 was built in Japan in 1987 and operated there until last year before being sold to its current Indonesian operator, PT Virgo Karya Shipping. Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed the overturned ferry in choppy waters during a helicopter search. Separate footage showed exhausted survivors getting off a rescue ship at a port in Banjarmasin, while injured people were carried on stretchers and taken by ambulance to nearby hospitals.
Hundreds of relatives gathered at a command centre at Trisakti port in Banjarmasin as they waited for news of family members believed to be on board. Many checked passenger manifests and rescue lists as the search continued. “I was shocked when I saw my uncle’s name on the passenger list,” said a woman who goes by a single name, Bunga. “But I felt relieved after officials told me he had been rescued.”
Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common mode of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed. Last month, at least 211 people were rescued from an Indonesian ferry that caught fire in rough seas near Bali, while one person died and four remained missing. The incident came less than two weeks after another Indonesian ferry, the Mutiara Sentosa 2, caught fire off Java, killing at least five people. Sunday’s accident also came four days after a passenger ferry fire in the Philippines killed at least 76 people, with at least 10 still missing.
As the search continued in rough weather, rescuers remained focused on the overturned ferry in the Java Sea, where more than 100 people had been saved, six bodies had been recovered and at least 129 people were still missing.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
