A ferry sailing between the islands of Java and Borneo in Indonesia that came under extreme weather in the Java Sea on Sunday morning has caused the death of one of its passengers and rescued over 100 people, local rescue authorities said.
The 243 passengers and crew on the Ferry were presumed lost touch with their shipping company early Sunday before leaving Surabaya, on the Indonesian east coast of Java. The incident took place when the vessel was en route towards the town of Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan.
Local search and rescue chief, I Putu Sudayana said that 103 passengers had been rescued, with one soul lost. Rescue operations were challenging due to the stormy conditions with waves up to 2.5 metres.
Even rescue boats like the 40-metre-long Basarnas had a big risk in their approach to the ferry, Sudayana said. He earlier reported that when he started communication loss the captain had told him that the ship was “tilting”.
The last place where the ferry was seen was in the Java Sea, about 150 kilometres from its destination. Rescue efforts were ongoing and efforts were made to search and remove those still aboard.
The occurrence of a marine accident is relatively frequent in Indonesia, comprising over 17,000 islands, in which marine transportation and tourism services are essential through the use of ferries and boats. Lack of safety measures and uncertain weather events are commonly been a cause of seafaring accidents.
The incident has happened just after a series of accidents in Indonesian waters earlier this month. The speedboat, which was transporting five of the journalists who were covering the eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau and had on board a total of eight people, went missing earlier this week. A ferry fire off the coast of Indonesia claimed the life of one person and left five people missing or unaccounted for last month after 211 people were rescued in the fire in the Lombok Strait.