Rescuers searching for 140 people from Indonesian passenger ship

Jakarta: Indonesian rescuers are searching for 140 people from a passenger ship that was reported missing in the Java Sea early on Sunday morning. Authorities say 102 people were evacuated from the ship and one death has been confirmed.

The Indonesian ferry, carrying about 243 people, was reported missing to authorities early on Sunday morning after losing contact with its operator during bad weather.

The Virgo Transport 8 ship set sail at 10.13am on Saturday from the East Java city of Surabaya bound for the South Kalimantan city of Banjarmasin on Borneo Island before losing contact during the night, the Search and Rescue Office in Banjarmasin said.

The agency said it received a report two hours after the vessel’s operator, PT Virgo Yoel Rihi, lost contact with the ship at about 2am Sunday (local time).

A rescue ship and helicopter was dispatched to the ship’s last-known position, about 148 kilometres from a pier in Banjarmasin.

“The ship’s operator reported the incident to authorities after receiving information that the vessel had encountered bad weather,” said I Putu Sudayana, head of the Search and Rescue Office, in a video briefing.

The statement said 103 people had been evacuated using different ships and some of them would be taken to an East Java port, but did not explain what happened to the ship.

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.