BANJARMASIN, Indonesia (AP) — The search is continuing for at least 129 people missing after a ferry overturned in bad weather in Indonesia 's Java Sea on Sunday.
At least 108 people were rescued and the bodies of six passengers were recovered as the search operation expanded around the vessel’s last known position.
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In this aerial image taken from video released by Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), the bottom of passenger ferry Virgo Transport 8 is seen above the water after it overturned in bad weather in the Java Sea, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (BASARNAS via AP)
In this aerial image taken from video released by Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), the bottom of passenger ferry Virgo Transport 8 is seen above the water after it overturned in bad weather in the Java Sea, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (BASARNAS via AP)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, rescuers wheels a survivor of a sinking ferry on a stretcher upon arrival at a port in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Iman Satria)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, survivors receive medical treatment after a ferry sank in bad weather in the Java Sea, at a port in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Iman Satria)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, rescuers carry a survivor on a stretcher after a ferry sank in bad weather in the Java Sea, upon arrival at a port in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Iman Satria)
A woman loses consciousness upon learning that the name of a relative is on the passenger list of a ferry overturned in bad weather in the Java Sea, at the rescuers command center in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Iman Satria)
People look for the names of their family members on a passenger list after a ferry overturned in bad weather in the Java Sea, at the rescuers command center in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Iman Satria)
The ferry, with more than 240 people on board, was traveling from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province, on Borneo Island, officials said.
The captain had reported rough seas with waves up to 3 meters (10 feet) before issuing a distress call, saying the ship was listing, said I Putu Sudayana, who heads the Banjarmasin Search and Rescue Office. Authorities later received information indicating the vessel had overturned.
The rescue agency in Banjarmasin said it received a report two hours after contact was lost with the Virgo Transport 8 at about 2 a.m. Sunday.
A rescue ship was headed to the vessel's last known position, the agency said, and by Sunday afternoon authorities were deploying teams supported by a dozen vessels, including four navy ships, and two helicopters.
Initial information indicated the vessel’s last known position was in the Java Sea, about 148 kilometers (92 miles) from Banjarmasin. The ship's manifest said it was carrying 243 people — 213 passengers and 30 crew members — although it is common in Indonesia for the number of passengers to differ from the manifest. The vessel was also transporting 89 vehicles.
Sudayana, who is coordinating the search, said search teams, assisted by nearby tugboats and other passing vessels, had rescued 107 people and recovered six bodies by Sunday afternoon.
The 119-meter (390-foot) Virgo Transport 8 ferry was built in Japan in 1987 and operated there until last year before being sold to the current Indonesian operator, PT Virgo Karya Shipping.
Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said aerial searches showed the ferry was floating upside down and had not sunk. Rescuers were concentrating search efforts around the overturned ferry, he told reporters Sunday.
Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency on Sunday showed an overturned ferry floating in choppy waters during a helicopter search operation. Separate footage captured exhausted survivors disembarking from a rescue ship at a port in Banjarmasin, while injured victims were carried on stretchers before being taken by ambulances to nearby hospitals.
Hundreds of relatives gathered at a command center in Banjarmasin's Trisakti port, awaiting word on family members believed to be aboard the ferry. Many anxiously checked passenger manifests and rescue lists as authorities continued searching for survivors.
“I was shocked when I saw my uncle’s name on the passenger list,” said a woman who goes by a single name, Bunga. “But I felt relieved after officials told me he had been rescued.”
Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.
At least 211 people were rescued from an Indonesian ferry that caught fire last month in rough seas near the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, while one person was found dead and four others remained missing. The incident happened less than two weeks after another Indonesian ferry, the Mutiara Sentosa 2, caught fire off the main island of Java, with the loss of at least five people.
Sunday’s accident comes just four days after a fire that gutted a passenger ferry in the Philippines killed at least 76 people, with at least 10 others still missing.
Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press journalists Fadlan Syam in Jakarta and Edna Tarigan and Andi Jatmiko in Pontianak, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
In this aerial image taken from video released by Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), the bottom of passenger ferry Virgo Transport 8 is seen above the water after it overturned in bad weather in the Java Sea, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (BASARNAS via AP)
In this aerial image taken from video released by Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), the bottom of passenger ferry Virgo Transport 8 is seen above the water after it overturned in bad weather in the Java Sea, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (BASARNAS via AP)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, rescuers wheels a survivor of a sinking ferry on a stretcher upon arrival at a port in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Iman Satria)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, survivors receive medical treatment after a ferry sank in bad weather in the Java Sea, at a port in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Iman Satria)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, rescuers carry a survivor on a stretcher after a ferry sank in bad weather in the Java Sea, upon arrival at a port in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Iman Satria)
A woman loses consciousness upon learning that the name of a relative is on the passenger list of a ferry overturned in bad weather in the Java Sea, at the rescuers command center in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Iman Satria)
People look for the names of their family members on a passenger list after a ferry overturned in bad weather in the Java Sea, at the rescuers command center in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Iman Satria)
Iranians on Wednesday struck a defiant tone, celebrating U.S. voters’ rebuke of President Donald Trump in the midterm elections while many in the Middle East waited to see how the results could affect the Iran war.
Concerns about the war, particularly frustration over rising prices for fuel and other goods in the U.S., helped Democrats win control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s vote, a sharp setback for Trump and his Republican Party.
But Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father and predecessor was killed in the opening strikes of the war in February, dismissed the prospect of any major change in the U.S. approach to the Islamic Republic.
“If there are still those who harbor even a slight hope for a change in behavior or partisan and factional shifts within the system of domination, or who imagine that by giving concessions to America they can dissuade it from hostility toward the Iranian nation, they are gravely mistaken,” he said on his social media account.
The broader region has been on edge for weeks over the prospect of the U.S. resuming full-scale military operations against Iran. Talks aimed at preventing renewed fighting are continuing, while other U.S. allies in the region urge Washington against resuming a war that began more than eight months ago and has rattled the global economy and devastated Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly pushed for more strikes, while Trump has alternated between threatening major military action and pushing for a deal.
Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, wrote Wednesday on X that “Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message.” He warned that if the U.S. government ignores the vote for change, “it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare.”
Despite ceasefire agreements and repeated diplomatic efforts, military confrontations have continued in southern Iran and around the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a social media post that Americans had sent a clear message and warned Washington against ignoring it. If the U.S. continues to ignore reality, the spokesperson said, “the consequences of this grave miscalculation will extend far beyond what you have already witnessed.”
Underscoring the mutual hostility at the heart of the conflict, thousands marched through Tehran on Wednesday at a government-organized demonstration commemorating the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy.
Pro-government demonstrators burned American and Israeli flags and chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” They displayed effigies of Trump and Netanyahu alongside caricatures of the two leaders.
“Trump has gone too far in everything and that’s one reason for his defeat in the election,” said Hananeh Jahed, a demonstrator.
Zahra Nadiminejad praised Iranian resistance, saying U.S. voters “finally figured out that this is Iran, and they can’t just come in here and do whatever the hell they want.”
“They’ve seen the consequences of the war back home, from skyrocketing gas and food prices to all the devastating effects the war has had on their own country. And whether the Democrats win or the Republicans win, our hostility toward America will never come to an end.”
Nearly three decades ago, Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy on Nov. 4, 1979, taking American diplomats and other citizens hostage. Fifty-two Americans were held for 444 days before being released.
The crisis helped cement the rupture between the two countries, which have had no formal diplomatic relations for years.
The United States and Israel launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28, killing the country’s longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and triggering a conflict that has disrupted global energy markets and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Addressing the demonstrators on Wednesday, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani claimed the United States and Israel had suffered a massive defeat, which he said was also reflected in last week's Israeli elections.
“The decisive defeat of the United States and the Zionist regime in recent developments and elections is the result of the Iranian nation’s steadfastness and strength,” Zakani said.
The U.S. elections came just a day after what appeared to be a limited strike on Iranian targets in the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway, which renewed questions about what might come next.
Iranian state media reported explosions Monday on Qeshm and Hengam islands and near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas. Iranian authorities have not publicly identified the specific sites struck or disclosed the extent of the damage.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas transited before the war, has seen repeated Iranian attacks on commercial shipping. Iran has sought to restrict shipping to pressure the U.S. to lift its blockade on Iranian ports.
Iran’s state TV said Wednesday that four oil tankers caught fire after they struck mines on what it described as unauthorized routes.
Back-channel negotiations have continued.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Monday that he and Trump “both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement.”
Before the latest strikes, the Trump administration’s last known attacks on Iran were in early September. Thousands of U.S. troops remain in waters off Iran to maintain the naval blockade, aimed at preventing tankers carrying Iranian oil from reaching the global market. Another aircraft carrier and thousands of additional troops are on their way to the Middle East.
Associated Press writers Samy Magdy, Toqa Ezzidin and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
Iranian government supporters raise their fists, one holding a portrait of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a caricature of U.S. President Donald Trump, during the annual rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, outside the former embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian government supporters burn an Israeli flag during the annual rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, outside the former embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian government supporters step on U.S. and Israeli flags during the annual rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, outside the former embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
An Iranian government supporter carries an Iranian flag and a poster depicting Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei with a rifle as he walks beneath a matching banner during the annual rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, outside the former embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian government supporters, including clerics, raise their fists as they stand on U.S. and Israeli flags during the annual rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, outside the former embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian government supporters raise their fists, one holding a portrait of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a caricature of U.S. President Donald Trump, during the annual rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, outside the former embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Boys, some wearing camouflage uniforms and green berets, stand in front of caricatures of U.S. President Donald Trump during the annual rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, outside the former embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian government supporters burn an Israeli flag during the annual rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, outside the former embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian government supporters step on U.S. and Israeli flags during the annual rally marking the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, outside the former embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
