admin 
JAKARTA: Hundreds of Indonesian rescuers, police and specialized navy underwater teams were on Monday searching for 128 people still missing after a passenger ship capsized in the Java Sea over the weekend.
The KM Virgo Transport 8 vessel with 243 people on board left Surabaya on the island of Java for Banjarmasin on Borneo island, some 490 km away, on Saturday. Early on Sunday, the ship’s captain informed its operator about the rough weather and that the vessel was tilting.
Hours after communication was lost, it was located overturned at sea, some 150 km from its destination.
The National Search and Rescue Agency said on Monday that 115 people from a capsized passenger ship have been accounted for, including six who were found dead. Some were rescued by tugboats and other passing vessels.
BASARNAS’ chief Mohammad Syafii told reporters that more than 600 personnel have been deployed to find the missing passengers.
“We’ll be deploying specialized forces, both from the BASARNAS and its special team with underwater rescue skills, as well as from the navy,” he said.
“We are hopeful that we will be able to find survivors.”
Expectations to find more victims alive were reignited after a 28-year-old woman found adrift was rescued in the late afternoon.
“The BASARNAS helicopter evacuated the survivor and landed at Syamsudin Noor Air Force Base, Banjarbaru,” the agency said, adding that she was safely brought to a hospital.
While surviving passengers reported that waves flooded the Virgo Transport 8 before it capsized, authorities say it is too early to determine the exact cause of the accident until an investigation is complete.
“We know that if waves could get inside, it means at that time they were over 3 meters high,” Syafii told reporters.
“The head of the National Transportation Safety Committee has also joined us to collect information and data, the result of which can be included in the probe.”
