Five dead, 41 missing after Indonesia ferry fire

A passenger ferry carrying 271 people caught fire off Indonesia’s Madura Island on Sunday, killing at least five people and leaving 41 others missing as rescuers and nearby vessels pulled hundreds from the burning ship, officials said.

The Mutiara Sentosa 2 was sailing from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, in East Java to Makassar in South Sulawesi when the blaze broke out between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., according to Basarnas, Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency. The vessel was carrying 232 passengers and 39 crew members.

Basarnas said the ferry operator, PT Atosim Lampung Pelayaran, reported the emergency to the Surabaya search and rescue office at 8:24 a.m. The company had received information from the captain that the ferry was on fire near the northern tip of Madura Island, but contact was later lost, CBS News reported, citing the agency.

“Based on information from the shipping company, the fire occurred at around 06:00-07:00,” Basarnas said in a statement cited by the BBC.

By 9:45 a.m., authorities had determined the ferry was about 19 nautical miles north of Buruan Sapudi island after communicating with a nearby cargo vessel, Meratus Project 3. CBS News reported that the cargo ship could not get close to the burning ferry because it was carrying a flammable load.

Footage released by Basarnas showed thick black smoke pouring from one side of the ferry and spreading across much of the vessel. Other videos carried by local media and circulating online showed passengers in life jackets clustered on deck and in upper sections of the ship, some climbing down from the ferry and others jumping into the sea as flames and smoke rose from above.

Basarnas later said it had received confirmation that the ferry “was almost entirely engulfed in flames” as “passengers held on in the ship’s bridge and bow while awaiting rescue.” Videos showed lifebuoys being thrown into the water and groups of people in life jackets gathering before being carried onto rescue vessels.

A tugboat and another passing vessel began evacuating passengers shortly before 10 a.m., according to Basarnas. By Sunday afternoon, nearby vessels had rescued 225 passengers and crew and recovered five bodies. Forty-one people remained unaccounted for.

Search teams sent a rescue vessel from Surabaya, though officials estimated it would take about six hours to reach the scene. A rigid inflatable boat from the Sumenep rescue post was also dispatched but returned to shore because of rough seas and high waves, CBS News reported. The Indonesian Navy deployed a warship to assist.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known and remained under investigation.

The Mutiara Sentosa 2 is a 525-foot-long, 82-foot-wide ferry that serves the Surabaya-Makassar route, a trip that typically takes about 40 hours and is used by domestic travelers and cargo transport between Java and Sulawesi, according to CBS News.

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common form of transportation. Al Jazeera reported that the country frequently experiences maritime accidents, citing lax enforcement of safety regulations and unpredictable weather as contributing factors.