Basarnas expands search for 129 missing after Virgo Transport accident

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2 hours ago

Banjarmasin, S. Kalimantan (ANTARA) – The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) expanded its search area on Monday to 2,600 nautical miles in its efforts to locate 129 people who remain missing following the Virgo Transport 8 vessel accident in the Java Sea.

Search operations on the second day focused on the waters around Masalembo, radiating from the accident’s reference point at coordinates 4°31’51.82″ South Latitude and 114°02’06.88″ East Longitude, with a heading of 203.94 degrees.

Head of Basarnas Mohammad Syafii said the search pattern was arranged in parallel across six sectors to ensure that operational routes between sea and air units did not overlap.

“The search area that we carried out across six sectors covers 2,600 nautical miles. The search started from the datum position, followed by directed sector patterns,” Syafii said during a press conference at Trisakti Port in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan.

He explained that rescuers narrowed the operation to six sectors on the second day after establishing the exact location of the incident, down from the eight sectors deployed on the first day.

The non-overlapping sector system was designed to account for the possibility that people could be carried away from the initial accident site by ocean currents and waves.

“From the start to the finish point, there is no contact between sectors one to six. That is what we are executing to maximize results,” Syafii said.

According to Syafii, the KM Virgo Transport 8 encountered severe weather at around midnight Central Indonesian Time (WITA) on Sunday (September 13) before losing contact at around 2:00 a.m. WITA while en route from Surabaya to Banjarmasin.

The vessel had departed from Surabaya on Saturday (September 12).

The crew reported the emergency to the ship’s operator, PT Virgo, before issuing distress signals.

The Basarnas Command Center subsequently broadcast alerts to nearby vessels in the Java Sea, requesting immediate assistance.

As of 11:00 a.m. WITA on Monday, Basarnas confirmed that 114 of the 243 people aboard the ship had been accounted for, comprising 108 survivors and six fatalities.

Of the 114 people located, 86—including 85 survivors and one deceased passenger—had arrived at Trisakti Port in Banjarmasin, while the evacuation of 28 other rescued people was still underway.

“Hopefully, today we can find the people who are still declared missing so we can evacuate them safely,” Syafii said.