Indonesian rescuers expanded their search Monday for 129 people missing after a ferry carrying more than 240 passengers and crew overturned in the Java Sea. Six deaths have been confirmed.
Seventeen ships and aircraft from the military, police and other agencies joined the operation, and the number of personnel rose to 655, National Search and Rescue Agency chief Mohammad Syafii said. Navy teams brought in specialized underwater units and thermal drones, The Associated Press reported.
The Virgo Transport 8 had left Surabaya in East Java for Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province, on Borneo. Its captain radioed a distress call saying the vessel was listing in waves reaching 3 meters, or about 10 feet. Contact was lost around 2 a.m. Sunday. About two hours later, authorities learned the ship had overturned in the Masalembo waters, roughly 148 kilometers, or 92 miles, from Banjarmasin, according to NPR.
Search teams pulled 108 people from the water on Sunday and recovered six bodies.
The manifest listed 243 people, 213 passengers and 30 crew, along with 89 vehicles. Officials have noted that the real number of passengers on Indonesian ferries often differs from the paperwork.
Ahmad Saudi, a bus driver who survived, told NPR the ship looked overcrowded, with passengers sleeping in hallways and common areas because the cabins were full. He said it listed without warning and that panic spread as rough water struck the vessel.
Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi told reporters in Banjarmasin that officials cannot yet determine whether the missing are still inside the hull or have drifted away from the site, ABC News reported. The Directorate General of Sea Transportation said investigators are still examining natural, technical and human factors as possible causes.
Weather has slowed the work. Waves of up to 2.5 meters made the area dangerous even for the agency's own 40-meter vessel, local search and rescue chief I Putu Sudayana told reporters.
Indonesia spans about 17,000 islands and relies heavily on ferries, which are cheaper and more widely available than flights, Al Jazeera reported. A fire aboard a ferry running between Bali and Lombok last month killed one person and left five missing.