By Sumayya
BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — A boat flipped over in rough weather in Indonesia’s Java Sea on Sunday, leaving close to 130 travelers and crew lost, rescue workers said. At least 107 individuals were saved and the remains of six travelers were found as the rescue work grew around the ship’s last known spot.
The boat with more than 240 individuals was moving from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province, on Borneo Island, workers said.
The ship’s leader had reported rough seas with waves up to 3 meters (10 feet) before sending a help call, saying the ship was tilting, said I Putu Sudayana, who leads the Banjarmasin Search and Rescue Office. Workers later got news showing the ship had flipped over.
The rescue office in Banjarmasin said it got a report two hours after link was lost with the Virgo Transport 8 at about 2 a.m. Sunday.
A rescue ship was moving to the ship’s last known spot, he said, and by Sunday afternoon workers were sending groups backed by eight ships, including four navy ships, and two helicopters.
Living people are saved and dead bodies found
Early news showed the ship’s last known spot was in the Java Sea, about 148 kilometers (92 miles) from Banjarmasin. The ship’s list said it was moving 243 individuals — 213 travelers and 30 crew members — though it is normal in Indonesia for the count of travelers to differ from the list. The ship was also moving 89 vehicles.
Sudayana, who is leading the search, said search groups, helped by nearby tugboats and other passing ships, had saved 107 individuals and found six bodies by Sunday afternoon.
The 119-meter (390-foot) Virgo Transport 8 boat was made in Japan in 1987.
Transportation Chief Dudy Purwagandhi said sky searches showed the boat was drifting upside down and had not gone under. Rescue workers were focusing search steps around the flipped boat, he told reporters Sunday.
Sad family members wait for news at a dock
Hundreds of family members met at a control center in Banjarmasin’s Trisakti dock, waiting for news on family members thought to be on the boat. Many worriedly checked traveler lists and rescue notes as workers kept hunting for living people.
“I was shocked when I saw my uncle’s name on the traveler list,” said a lady who uses a single name, Bunga. “But I felt better after workers told me he had been saved.”
Indonesia is a group of more than 17,000 islands where boats are a normal way of travel. Tragedies happen often, with poor safety rules often blamed.
Last month, at least 211 individuals were saved from an Indonesian boat that caught fire in rough seas near the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, while one individual was found dead and four others stay lost. The event happened less than two weeks after another Indonesian boat, the Mutiara Sentosa 2, caught fire in waters off the main island of Java, leaving at least five individuals dead.
Sunday’s crash comes just four days after a fire that destroyed a traveler boat in the Philippines killed at least 76 individuals, with at least 10 others still lost.
