Kathmandu, September 13
A passenger ship carrying 240 people went missing in Indonesia on Sunday after losing contact in the Java Sea.
The ship, identified as Virgo Transport 8, was travelling from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin, the capital of South Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo. Authorities have launched a search for the missing vessel.
According to the Banjarmasin Search and Rescue Office, the ship’s communication system malfunctioned during the journey, after which authorities were unable to establish contact with the vessel.
Rescue officials said preliminary information showed that the ship’s last known location was in the Java Sea, about 148 kilometres from a port in Banjarmasin. Rescue teams are conducting an intensive search in the area. No information about casualties among those aboard the ship has been received so far.
Indonesia has witnessed several major maritime accidents in the past, with bad weather, storms, overloading and failure to comply with safety regulations often cited as contributing factors.
In 1981, the passenger ship Tampomas II sank in the Java Sea, killing around 430 people.
Similarly, the Senopati Nusantara ferry sank in the Java Sea in 2006 due to bad weather. More than 400 people were killed or went missing in the accident.
In 2007, more than 50 people died when the Levina I ferry caught fire and sank. In 2018, 36 people were killed when the Lestari Maju ferry sank off South Sulawesi.
Why is Indonesia at high risk of maritime accidents?
Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands, and a large proportion of its population of around 280 million lives across these islands. Ferries and passenger ships are therefore the main means of transportation between cities and islands, with large numbers of people travelling by sea every day.
As Indonesia lies in the tropics, it is frequently exposed to heavy rainfall, strong winds and high waves. Such weather conditions can make travel particularly difficult for small and medium-sized vessels.
Investigations into several past accidents have also revealed shortcomings such as overloading, inadequate safety equipment and failure to comply with safety standards properly. However, the causes of each accident may vary.
—With agency assistance
