The Java Sea search becomes a salvage job, with 126 still missing

Nobody is using the word rescue any more. Al Jazeera reports that divers brought up three more bodies from the Virgo Transport 8, taking the confirmed dead to nine, with 126 of the 243 people on board still missing and 108 rescued. On Friday, after five days of work broken up by strong currents and high waves, officials decided to roll the capsized hull upright so teams can get inside it. "The salvage operation is under way," navy commander Galih Nurna Putra said.

The wreck sits about 80 nautical miles, or 148 kilometres, from the command post running the operation, which is part of why this has taken so long. About 1,100 rescuers have been involved, and divers trained to work below 100 metres were brought in. The hull is unstable, so going in is dangerous until the ship is turned. I Putu Sudayana, a rescue official, said bodies would be recovered once the vessel is righted. Another official, Arianto Ardi, said the site remains hard to reach.

The ferry was on an ordinary run when it went over: a 20-hour crossing from Surabaya to Banjarmasin, in bad weather, early last Sunday. What is left is a recovery operation whose answer depends on the weather and the sea that caused the accident. Families waiting at both ports will not get a final count from the search. They will get it from the salvage, if it works.

Why it matters

If someone you know was on that crossing, the honest advice is that the next real news comes from the righting of the ship, not from the boats still circling the site. The wider point is about cost. One sinking in open water has taken 1,100 people, deep-water divers and a week of salvage to answer, which is a lot more than the checks it would have taken to stop a loaded ferry sailing into a storm. Watch whether the recovered count ever matches the 243 on the manifest.