An Indonesia ferry capsize in the Java Sea has left six people dead and about 129 missing, after the vessel overturned in bad weather in the early hours of Sunday, 13 September 2026.
The ferry was travelling from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province on Borneo Island, carrying more than 240 people, as reported by BBC.
At least 108 people were rescued and the bodies of six passengers were recovered.
What happened in the Indonesia ferry capsize
The captain reported rough seas with waves of up to three metres before issuing a distress call to say the vessel was listing. Contact with the ferry was lost at about 2:00 local time on Sunday (21:00 SAST on Saturday), and authorities received information roughly two hours later that it had overturned.
A three metre swell is enough to destabilise a loaded vessel, and once a ship begins to list it takes on water at a rate that narrows the window for an orderly evacuation.
The distress call and the loss of contact roughly two hours before the capsize was reported fall within that window.
How the Java Sea search operation has scaled up
By Monday, 14 September 2026, 17 ships and aircraft had been deployed in the search, with about 622 personnel drawn from the military, the police and other agencies taking part. The scale of that response corresponds to the number still unaccounted for rather than to any single new development.
Air assets are used to spot survivors and debris across a wide area, while surface vessels recover people from the water. Coordinating both at once is why a search of this size draws on the military, the police and civilian agencies rather than on a single service.
Why the Indonesia ferry capsize toll remains unsettled
The numbers do not yet reconcile. More than 240 people were on board, 108 have been rescued and six bodies have been recovered, which leaves about 129 unaccounted for.
Until the passenger manifest is checked against those brought ashore, the totals remain provisional.
The ferry left Surabaya, a major port city on the north coast of East Java, bound for Banjarmasin on the southern side of Kalimantan. Indonesia is an archipelago of thousands of islands, and ferries carry a large share of the domestic travel that links them.
The search continues across the stretch of the Java Sea where contact was lost, and the deployment of ships, aircraft and personnel has not been scaled back. Recovery operations of this kind are usually wound down only once the search area has been covered repeatedly without result.
