JAKARTA, Sept 21 — Indonesian divers recovered three more bodies from inside the sunken Virgo Transport 8 ferry today, bringing the death toll to 13, as the search and rescue (SAR) operation entered its ninth day.
National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) chief Mohammad Syafii said divers from the Basarnas Special Group (BSG) recovered the bodies from the ill-fated vessel at 9.04am, 9.13am, and 2.24pm local time.
He said the underwater search would continue for those believed to remain trapped inside the vessel.
As of today, 122 passengers of the vessel remain missing while 108 others have been rescued.
“We are not stopping. Every discovery is part of our effort to provide certainty to the families. The team will continue the search to the fullest extent possible, while continuing to prioritise the safety of the divers,” Syafii said in a statement.
Contact was lost with the passenger ferry during the early hours of Sunday (September 13) as it was sailing from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, carrying 243 people and 89 vehicles. The vessel was later found capsized in the Java Sea.
Basarnas reported that the vessel was only partially submerged when it was found but subsequently sank to a depth of about 29m on Thursday (September 17), and has continued to sink deeper.
With 122 people still unaccounted for, it extended the SAR operation on Saturday (September 19) for another seven days after the initial seven-day search period ended, citing the need for additional time to continue the search and carry out further stages of the operation.
