JAKARTA: The waters around the Masalembu Islands between Java and Borneo Islands are known for their powerful currents, which may disrupt sailing vessels when combined with strong seasonal winds and high waves.
The accident involving the Virgo Transport 8 ferry has renewed attention to the waters around the Masalembu Islands, which is often dubbed Indonesia’s “Bermuda Triangle” for being the location of multiple fatal incidents in the past decades.
The ferry, carrying 243 people from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, capsized early Sunday after reporting bad weather in Masalembu, also known as Masalembo.
The incident prompted a search and rescue mission by joint authorities, in which rescuers evacuated 108 survivors and recovered six casualties as of Tuesday noon.
Around 129 people were still unaccounted for, according to the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).
While rescuers search for the missing passengers, public attention has turned to the history of various incidents and folklore in the waters surrounding the remote Masalembu islands, also often referred to as Masalembo.
The number of high-profile maritime and aviation disasters in and around the waters has resulted in tales of mythical forces comparable to those associated with the Bermuda Triangle in the Atlantic Ocean.
Among the infamous incidents was the sinking of the Tampomas II passenger ship on Jan. 27, 1981.
The vessel, sailing from Jakarta to Makassar in South Sulawesi, caught fire near Masalembo and quickly sank amid rough weather, killing hundreds and leaving many others missing.
Rescue efforts reportedly unfolded under punishing conditions, with waves reaching up to 10 metres alongside strong winds and heavy rain.
The Tampomas incident had played an important role in shaping the waters’ reputation, according to maritime historian and archivist Fanada Sholihah.
“All aspects of this story provided very strong material for people’s collective memory of the area as a dangerous region,” said Fanada, director of historical archive platform Tarugiri, on Tuesday.
The incident of Adam Air flight 574 in January 2007, which lost contact and crashed while flying from Surabaya to Manado, North Sulawesi, is also often tied to Masalembu by various reports and studies.
All 102 people aboard were killed in the incident.
But the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) concluded in its investigation that the aircraft crashed into the sea off Majene regency, West Sulawesi, around 500 kilometres from Masalembu.
Yet, Masalembu’s reputation persists.
It even seeped into Indonesian popular culture, inspiring a local TV series that followed a group of survivors after their plane crashed in the notorious waters.
Experts have argued that the myth around Masalembu is not entirely detached from the physical characteristics of the waters.
The eastern part of the Java Sea, which includes waters around Masalembu, is known for powerful currents, whose conditions could be exacerbated by strong seasonal winds and high waves triggered by the East monsoon winds that occur between April and October.
“These [aspects] are why some people call this area ‘the Masalembo Triangle’,” said disaster expert Daryono, a former director of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s (BMKG) earthquake and tsunami centre.
Such weather conditions can be “very dangerous for shipping safety”, he added, noting that vessels crossing perpendicular to the current can be easily pushed off course or capsized.
Historian Fanada said the term “Masalembo Triangle” should be understood more as a form of maritime memory and mythology than as a geographical term in a scientific category.
Tuesday marked the third day of the joint search and rescue to locate and evacuate Virgo Transport 8 passengers.
Twenty-two survivors arrived at Trisakti Port in Banjarmasin on Tuesday after initially being rescued by the KM Cahaya Bahari Jaya and were transferred to the Navy’s KRI Nala.
Four bodies were transported by helicopter to the city’s Syamsudin Noor Airport.
Rescuers used a stretcher on Tuesday to carry a passenger from the Virgo Transport 8 ferry after it arrived at Trisakti Port in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan. The passenger ship capsized in the Java Sea on Sunday while sailing from Surabaya in East Java to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan. (Reuters/Stringer)
Basarnas chief Air Vice Marshal Mohammad Syafii said rescuers would deploy both maritime and aerial resources to optimise the search.
He noted that 1,097 personnel, 17 vessels and five aircraft were involved in the search and rescue operation on Tuesday.
“Every development in the field is continuously evaluated to ensure the search area can be determined effectively and increase the chances of finding survivors and victims,” Syafii said in a statement on Tuesday.
Usman Hamid, executive director of rights group Amnesty International Indonesia, called for a thorough state investigation to expose potential negligence behind the incident, arguing that allowing a passenger ship to plough through bad weather “constitutes a disregard for human safety”.- Jakarta Post/ANN
