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t least eight people were killed when a ferry from Merak in Banten heading for Bakauheni in Lampung collided head-on with a tanker in the Sunda Strait early on Wednesday.

Port authorities in Merak said that the collision between the ferry, the Bahuga Jaya, and the tanker Norgastar occurred some four nautical miles off Bakauheni at 4:48 a.m. West Indonesian Time (WIB), sinking the ship with a total of 215 passengers and crew members aboard.

So far, rescue workers have recovered the bodies of eight passengers and found the ship badly damaged.

Operations manager of state-owned PT ASDP in Bakauheni, Heru Purwanto, said that based on the passenger manifest, the ferry was carrying 215 passengers, 18 trucks, 17 pickups, 22 cars and 10 motorcycles.

“We still making an inventory on passengers who have been rescued. The search for missing passengers and crew is still under way,” he said.

Ridwansyah, a 35-year-old resident of Bandarlampung survived the incident, by jumping into the water only seconds after the collision.

“I saw the tanker and the ferry collide because I was on the edge of the ferry’s upper deck,” he said, adding the ferry sank some 20 minutes after the collision and he did not know what had happened to the tanker.

Six bodies were taken to Kalianda General Hospital while the two others were sent to the Krakatau Steel General Hospital in Merak.

The accident has been reported to the National Committee for Transportation Safety (KNKT) and a through investigation will be conducted to establish the cause of the collision.

According to ASDP data, four major accidents have occurred in the past two years.

On Jan. 28, 2011, Ferry Laut Teduh II was destroyed by a flash fire which killed 11 of the 438 passengers on board. On Feb. 2, 2011 the same ferry caught fire again, resulting the death of 29 passengers.

Chairman of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation in Lampung Subadrayani Moersalin has called on the ill-fated ferry operator and ASDP to make good there financial obligations, including insurance compensation, to the victims and their family and to be more cooperative with the KNKT in carrying out a comprehensive investigation into the incident.

Acoording to Subadrayani, there is a need for the government and KNKT to regularly audit the condition of all ferries serving the Bakauheni-Merak route to minimize such incidents in the future.