National Search and Rescue Agency

The ferry sank in the Java Sea on September 13th while traveling from Surabaya to Benjarmasan with 243 people aboard.

As of early October, Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, Basarnas, reported that 188 people had been accounted for, including 80 confirmed dead.

55 people remain missing and are believed to still be inside the wreck.

Regional Port Authority KSOP Ben Jarmesen has pushed for the salvage to move quickly given the number of victims still inside the hull.

She lost contact in the early hours of the next morning after running into bad weather and capsized in the Java Sea.

As of yesterday, 12 days into the search, Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, Basarnas, put the numbers at 143 people evacuated, 108 of them alive, and 35 recovered dead, with 99 still missing.

Basarnas Chief Mohamed Sayafi said the agency now has around 1,256 personnel and 17 vessels on the operation, along with helicopters from Basarnas, the Navy, police, and an Air Force Boeing.

The current in these waters is what's slowing the search and rescue down.

Divers typically work in currents up to about two and a half knots at the outside, and Siafi said the water at the site is running six to seven knots, so crews can only get in during the brief window as the tide turns.

Indonesian Navy divers were forced back by dangerously strong currents around the wreck site.

With the search dragging on into its second week, Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, Basarnas, has now brought in outside expertise, coordinating with specialists from Hong Kong and the United States on a plan to right the capsized vessel so crews can finally get inside.

Investigators with Indonesia's Transportation Safety Committee have also begun collecting statements from survivors, while the country's transportation minister has stated the ferry was not overloaded at the time it sailed.

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Officials said the confirmed death toll stood at six and 108 people had already been rescued.

The National Search and Rescue Agency deployed at least 622 personnel, 17 ships, five helicopters and aircraft on Monday.

It also sent specialized underwater teams and Navy-operated underwater drones, Agency Chief Mohamed Sayafi'i said.

Choppy waters, high waves, and strong winds hampered efforts to board the vessel on Monday.

The Virgo Transport 8 vessel was carrying more than two hundred and forty people when its captain issued a distress call saying the ship was listing in rough seas with waves of up to ten feet traveling to South Kalimantan province on Borneo Island.

Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency on Sunday showed an overturned ferry floating in choppy waters during a helicopter rescue operation.

Now seventeen ships and aircraft are out in the sea in search efforts for passengers and the speeding up of the evacuation of victims.

Mohammed Siafi, chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency, tells reporters, "Regarding the condition of the vessel, which was capsized and now is floating upside down, we will deploy a specialized unit.

We will involve the special group with underwater capabilities.

We remain hopeful of finding more survivors," he adds.