BANJARBARU (TABIRkota) — The bodies of four additional victims from the KM Virgo Transport 8 tragedy—which sank in the Java Sea early Sunday morning (Sept 13)—were successfully airlifted and arrived at Syamsudin Noor Air Force Base in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, on Tuesday afternoon (Sept 15).
I Putu Sudayana, Head of the Banjarmasin Class A Search and Rescue Office (Basarnas) and the SAR Mission Coordinator, stated that the four victims’ bodies had previously been recovered and transferred from a nearby vessel.
"The aerial evacuation process involved helicopters belonging to Basarnas and the National Police Headquarters," he said.
Upon arrival at Syamsudin Noor Air Force Base, he noted, the four bodies were immediately transported by ambulance to the Forensic Unit of Bhayangkara Hospital in Banjarmasin.
"At Bhayangkara Hospital, the four bodies will undergo an identification process by the South Kalimantan Regional Police’s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team," he said.
Currently, the South Kalimantan Regional Police forensic team is working diligently to conduct medical examinations and match antemortem data to confirm the victims’ identities before handing them over to their families.
Previously, Basarnas reported that there were six fatalities in the KM Virgo Transport 8 incident.
Two bodies had already arrived in Banjarmasin earlier, and one of them was successfully identified as a male named Nurul Rian Hidayat.
With the arrival of these four additional bodies, there are now five victims of the KM Virgo Transport 8 tragedy at the Bhayangkara Hospital Forensic Unit in Banjarmasin.
The KM Virgo Transport 8, carrying 243 passengers, was previously reported to have lost contact in the Java Sea on Sunday (Sept 13) at approximately 02:00 WITA, while sailing from Surabaya to Banjarmasin, a journey that began on Saturday (Sept 12).
Of the total 243 persons on board (POB) recorded, as of Tuesday (Sept 15), 114 victims have been located—comprising 108 survivors and six deceased individuals, while a search remains ongoing for the remaining 129 missing passengers. (ra)
