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Six dead, 129 missing in Java Sea ferry capsizing

September 14, 2026

A ferry listed in bad weather and overturned in the Java Sea, killing at least six people and leaving 129 missing as rescuers search the Masalembo waters.

More than 17,000 islands make up Indonesia, and ships carry people between them as ordinary transport, with a national rescue agency known as BASARNAS working alongside the navy and the maritime police on emergencies at sea.

Key facts

Reuters carries the account of an Indonesian search widened on Monday for those lost when a ferry went over in rough weather in the Java Sea. NPR reports that the vessel stopped answering at about 2 a.m. Sunday, and that word of the capsizing reached authorities roughly two hours after that, in the Masalembo waters some 148 kilometers, or 92 miles, out from Banjarmasin. NPR puts the dead at six or more, with 129 unaccounted for. ABC News reports a 6 p.m. Jakarta update from the National Search and Rescue Agency, BASARNAS, counting 108 or more taken off safely, the same figure NPR carries.

The outlets agree on how the rescue is being run and on the doubt over the missing. ABC News reports that vessels and a helicopter are out looking for survivors, and BBC reports a combined effort drawing in the rescue agency, the navy, the maritime police and others. ABC News quotes Dudy Purwagandhi, Indonesia's transport minister, speaking to reporters in Banjarmasin, in South Kalimantan province, "We cannot yet determine whether the victims are still inside the vessel or whether they may be some distance away from the location of the vessel," and NPR, BBC and Reuters carry the same remark.

NPR reports a manifest total of 243, of whom 30 worked the ship, while noting how often Indonesian passenger counts fail to match that paperwork, a point BBC and Reuters also carry. NPR carries a survivor's description of passengers scrambling upward as the vessel leaned, until it turned over entirely, and an account of no siren or spoken warning before it did. The capsizing, the place, the evacuation of 108 or more and the six deaths hold across the outlets. How many people the ferry actually carried does not.

Describing the trip to BBC Indonesia, she said, "They flew there initially, but for the return journey they wanted to try travelling by ship."

Still developing

The transport minister, Dudy Purwagandhi, says the location of the victims is not yet determined, whether inside the vessel or at some distance from it. In Indonesia the manifest and the number of passengers normally differ.

How settled the reporting is

Reported 100% · Contested 0% · Developing 0%

Sources