In the predawn hours of a Sunday in September, a ferry carrying 243 souls overturned in the Java Sea's rough waters, joining a long and sorrowful ledger of maritime disasters in an archipelago nation where the sea is both lifeline and peril. The Virgo Transport 8, a vessel that had crossed oceans across four decades, capsized some 148 kilometres from Banjarmasin as three-metre waves overwhelmed its hull, leaving 129 people unaccounted for even as rescuers pulled 108 survivors from the churning water. Indonesia's geography demands that its people trust the sea, yet that trust is repeatedly test
Indonesia ferry capsizes in Java Sea; 129 missing as rescue efforts intensify
At least 129 people missing, 108 rescued, and 6 bodies recovered from the overturned ferry carrying 243 passengers and crew.