Rescuers searching for 140 people from Indonesia passenger ship, official says

JAKARTA, Sept 13 — Indonesian rescuers were searching on Sunday for ​140 people from a passenger ship that was earlier reported missing in the Java Sea ‌after 103 others were evacuated, one of whom died, a ⁠search and rescue agency ​official said.

An Indonesian passenger ⁠ship carrying 243 people was reported missing after ‌losing contact early ‌on Sunday during bad weather, the search ⁠and rescue agency said.

The ⁠Virgo Transport 8 ship set sail on Saturday from the East Java city of Surabaya to the South Kalimantan city of Banjarmasin before losing contact, the agency said.

I Putu Sudayana, the ‌head of the agency's Banjarmasin office, ​said in a video statement that 103 people had been evacuated using different ships and some of them would be taken to an East Java port.

Rescuers launched a search, deploying a team, ships and a helicopter toward the passenger ​vessel's last known position, he said, without stating ‌what happened to ‌the ⁠ship.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, relies heavily on ferries as a key mode of transportation, with sea routes more affordable and readily available ‌than air travel.

However, safety ​standards are not always ‌rigorously enforced, resulting in ⁠a ​relatively high accident rate.

(Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Editing by ​Jamie Freed)

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