Virgo Transport 8: 20 Dead and 115 Still Missing as Navy ROVs Search 30-Metre Wreck

Twenty people are now confirmed dead and 115 remain missing after the KM Virgo Transport 8 capsized in Indonesia's Java Sea ten days ago, as rescuers continue an underwater search hampered by murky conditions at 30 metres depth.

The ferry went down in the early hours of 13 September while carrying 243 people, including 213 passengers and 30 crew, on a routine crossing from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan. Of those aboard, 108 were rescued in the hours after the sinking. The wreck was located at 30 metres in the Masalembo waters of the Java Sea, shortly after the vessel capsized.

Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, BASARNAS, is coordinating the response alongside the Indonesian Navy. The naval corvette KRI Canopus has been deployed with remotely piloted underwater vehicles and a multibeam echo sounder, but poor water visibility and strong subsea currents have slowed progress inside the sunken hull.

Salvage operations to right the vessel began earlier this week after Indonesia brought in specialist crews from the United States and Hong Kong to join the effort.

President Prabowo Subianto has ordered a formal investigation into the sinking. Authorities are examining whether the Virgo Transport 8 was overloaded or unseaworthy. Ageing vessels and overloading remain persistent problems on Indonesia's inter-island ferry routes, where large volumes of passengers travel between Java and Kalimantan.

With 115 passengers and crew still unaccounted for, families of the missing have gathered in Surabaya and along the Masalembo coast. The search continues.