Antara News·Indonesia·Monday, September 21, 2026 at 08:04 AM

Search continues for 123 still missing in Virgo 8 accident

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Tumpal Aritonang, Nabil Ihsan

Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan (ANTARA) - The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) continues its operation to locate 123 victims of the KM Virgo Transport 8 ship accident who remain missing on the ninth day since the vessel sank in the Java Sea.

Basarnas Chief Mohammad Syafii gave the assurance after confirming that Basarnas Special Group (BSG) divers had recovered the bodies of two male victims from inside the sunken vessel on Monday morning at 9 a.m. local time.

According to his statement received here, the two victims were promptly transferred with the HR 3601 helicopter to Syamsudin Noor Airfield in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, at 11:20 a.m. for the identification process, he noted.

"We optimise our forces to find and evacuate all the victims. The evacuation of two more victims is part of the hard work of the joint SAR mission. We will ensure all victims that we found will be promptly evacuated and handled according to procedures," Syafii said.

After the discovery of the two additional victims, the number of victims found and evacuated as of Monday noon is 120, with 108 survivors and 12 killed.

The KM Virgo Transport 8 was carrying 243 people from Surabaya, East Java, to Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, when it departed on Sept 12, 2026.

The vessel encountered bad weather and lost contact around 2 a.m. local time on Sept 13 before being found capsized later that day in the Masalembo waters of the Java Sea.

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