Indonesia’s search and rescue agency Basarnas is conducting a major operation in the Java Sea after the passenger vessel KM Virgo Transport 8 sank on the Surabaya–Banjarmasin route, with dozens confirmed dead and more than a hundred people still missing as divers and aircraft remain deployed.
As of September 21–22, 2026, Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) is continuing an intensive search and rescue operation around the wreck of passenger vessel KM Virgo Transport 8 in the Java Sea, between Surabaya in East Java and Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan. The ship, carrying 243 people, sank after an accident reported on September 12, and by the ninth day of operations divers from the Basarnas Special Group had recovered two more bodies from inside the sunken hull, bringing the total number of people found to around 120, including 108 survivors and at least 12–15 fatalities. More than a hundred people—variously estimated at about 120–123—remain missing, and search teams are working around the clock using helicopters, rescue craft and specialist dive teams.
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