Indonesia: Ship carrying 240 passengers goes missing in Java Sea, search launched

A passenger ship travelling from East Java to South Kalimantan province on Borneo island has gone missing in the middle of the Java Sea, with more than 240 passengers and crew on board. As soon as contact with the ship was lost, Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) declared a high alert in the Java Sea and immediately launched a large-scale search operation.

According to initial information, the passenger ship was named Virgo Transport 8 and had set out from Surabaya, one of East Java's largest cities, for Banjarmasin, the capital of South Kalimantan. Contact with its radio system and communication equipment was last established when the ship was about 148 kilometres (92 miles) from Banjarmasin port in the Java Sea. No message or signal was received from the ship after that.

As soon as the search and rescue office in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, received official information from the ship's operators and marine traffic controllers about the loss of contact, rescue teams were dispatched immediately. Coast guard special boats, rescue planes and local marine teams have been sent to the site to search for the ship.

The initial assessment is that bad weather, high waves or a technical fault in the Java Sea may have caused the loss of contact. There is fear and anxiety among the families of the 240 passengers on board over their safety. Rescue officials have made clear that, given the large number of passengers, all available resources are being deployed to carry out the search operation swiftly.

This incident in Indonesia has occurred days after a major maritime accident in neighbouring Philippines. On September 10, a passenger ferry caught fire near Palawan, a popular tourist spot in the Philippines. The ferry, named M/V June Aster, was travelling from Manila to Coron and was engulfed by fire before it could reach shore.

A total of 134 people were on board the ferry in that accident. After the fire spread, the Philippine Coast Guard immediately carried out a rescue operation and brought 43 passengers to safety. However, at least 5 people died in that accident, while more than 87 passengers remain missing. These repeated accidents in Asia's maritime regions have once again raised serious questions about the safety and technical standards of maritime traffic.

Indonesia is a country made up of about 17,000 large and small islands, which is why waterways and passenger ferries are considered an essential and cheap means of travelling from one island to another. But due to constantly changing weather and the continued use of ships even after their capacity has been exhausted, the number of accidents in the Java Sea remains high. Indonesia's navy and emergency management teams are currently working round the clock to find the missing Virgo Transport 8 ship.