Urgent search as huge passenger ship with 240 people on board missing in Indonesia

Urgent search as huge passenger ship with 240 people on board missing in Indonesia The Virgo Transport 8 experienced a communication failure in the Java Sea on Sunday - an operation is now underway to try and located the ship and the 241 people on board An urgent search operation is underway to find a missing a passenger ship carrying 240 people in Indonesia. Indonesian rescuers launched the operation on Sunday, September 13 after the ship lost contact in the Java Sea while traveling from East Java to South Kalimantan on Borneo island, officials said. The Search and Rescue Office in Banjarmasin, the capital of South Kalimantan province, said they received a report the Virgo Transport 8 had experienced a communication failure while en route to the city from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city in East Java province. Initial information indicated the vessel’s last known position was in the Java Sea, about 148 kilometers (92 miles) from a pier in Banjarmasin. The ship’s manifest said it was carrying 241 passengers. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Arianto Ardi, operations chief at Banjarmasin’s rescue agency, confirmed the loss of contact with the vessel and said rescue personnel had been dispatched to the area. “We have established an operations post at Trisakti,” Arianto said. Authorities said the ship’s operator reported the incident after receiving information that the vessel had encountered bad weather. The search comes shortly after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake in Java, Indonesia in the Banda Sea near Indonesia’s Maluku Island. The quake occurred at a depth of 143 km (89 miles) and had no tsunami potential, according to Indonesia's geophysics agency. "Taking into account the location of the epicentre and the depth of its hypocentre, the earthquake was a deep earthquake caused by intraslab activity,” he said in a statement, adding that tsunami modelling showed no tsunami threat.