A passenger ship carrying 243 passengers in the Java Sea off Indonesia lost contact after reporting worsening weather. Local authorities dispatched rescue teams to the vessel's last known position to begin a search.

Authorities launch a search after a passenger ship reports worsening weather and then loses contact in the Java Sea, Indonesia./Courtesy of CNN Indonesia website screenshot.

On the 13th (local time), according to Reuters, The Associated Press, and CNN Indonesia, the Banjarmasin Search and Rescue Agency in South Kalimantan, Indonesia, received a report from the operator of the "Vigor Transport No. 8" at about 4:10 a.m. that day.

According to foreign media, 243 passengers were on board the passenger ship, and the specific details of the report have not yet been disclosed.

Vigor Transport No. 8 departed Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city in East Java, at about 10:13 a.m. the previous day and was headed to Banjarmasin. It then lost contact at about 2 a.m. that day after its last transmission said the weather had worsened during the voyage.

The last confirmed position was in the Java Sea, about 148 kilometers from Banjarmasin's Basiri Wharf.

A Banjarmasin Search and Rescue Agency official said, "We sent a rescue team to the last confirmed position immediately after receiving the report that contact with the passenger ship had been lost."

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