Virgo Ship Tilts Due to Waves Hitting Right Hull

Basarnas has stated that waves hitting the right hull were one of the causes of the tilting of the Virgo Transport 8 vessel, which met with an accident in the Java Sea while travelling from Surabaya, East Java, to Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, on Sunday.

“The captain of the Virgo vessel reported that the tilting of the ship was also due to the impact of waves on the right hull. This is information we received directly from the captain of the Virgo vessel during the search operation, specifically regarding the ship that lost contact or sank,” said the Deputy of Operations and Preparedness at Basarnas, Edy Prakoso, in Jakarta.

He explained that, based on data from the Virgo, there were 243 people on board, consisting of 213 passengers and 30 crew members. This figure serves as the basis for the search and rescue operations.

“Regarding the latest developments, I can report based on field reports at 15:30 that approximately 113 victims have been evacuated, with 98 survivors and six fatalities. On the TB Mauhaw, there were 16 people, of whom 15 survived and one died; on the TB TCP, there were six people, with one survivor and five fatalities,” he said.

Edy continued, from the KM Haida, 69 people are safe, while from the Cahaya Bahari fishing boat, which was transferred to the Intandaya vessel, 22 people survived, and one person survived on the Sri Asih fishing boat.

“Consequently, 114 victims have been rescued, with 98 survivors and six fatalities. Approximately 129 people remain missing,” he explained.

Basarnas has confirmed that it is continuing to maximise efforts to evaluate and rescue the victims of the Virgo ship, particularly the 129 passengers still being searched for, by utilising all available sea and air assets currently in the field.