A Ferry Carrying 243 People Flipped Over in the Java Sea at 2 A.M. Sunday. Six Are Dead, 107 Were Pulled Out Alive, and About 130 Are Still Missing.

A passenger ferry carrying 243 people capsized in rough seas in Indonesia's Java Sea early Sunday, and by evening rescuers had recovered six bodies, pulled at least 107 people from the water and were still searching for roughly 130 others. The vessel, the Virgo Transport 8, was making the overnight crossing from Surabaya on the island of Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province on Borneo when it went over.

The ship lost contact at about 2 a.m. local time. Shortly before that, its captain radioed that waves had reached three meters, or about 10 feet, and that the ferry was listing, according to Indonesia's search and rescue agency. Officials said the distress report did not reach the rescue office until roughly two hours after the ship went silent. Its last known position was about 92 miles from Banjarmasin.

Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said aerial searches found the ferry floating upside down but still afloat. The 119-meter vessel, built in Japan in 1987, was carrying 213 passengers, 30 crew and 89 vehicles, according to the manifest. By Sunday afternoon at least a dozen vessels, including four navy ships, and two helicopters had joined the search.

Hundreds of relatives crowded a command post at Banjarmasin's Trisakti port, waiting for names to be read from lists of survivors and the dead. One woman, who gave her name as Bunga, told The Associated Press she had wept with relief after learning her uncle was among those rescued. Many others were still waiting for word hours later.

Ferries are the primary link between the more than 17,000 islands of the Indonesian archipelago, and deadly accidents are a recurring feature of the country's transport system. Investigators routinely cite overloading, poor maintenance and weak enforcement of safety rules. Sunday's capsizing followed an incident near Bali last month in which 211 people were rescued and four went missing, as well as a fire aboard a ferry off Java earlier this summer that killed at least five.

The Java Sea crossing between Surabaya and Banjarmasin is one of the busiest cargo and passenger routes in the country, and the September transition toward the rainy season regularly brings squalls and heavy swells. Authorities had not said Sunday whether the ferry had received a weather warning before departure, or whether the 89 vehicles in its hold shifted as the ship rolled. Indonesia's transport safety investigators typically open a formal inquiry once the search phase ends.

For now the focus remains on the water. The count of missing is likely to change as the manifest is checked against the names of those pulled from the sea, and with the ferry inverted and night falling over the Java Sea, officials gave no indication that the number of dead had stopped rising.