On a busy domestic shipping route linking Indonesia’s Java and Sulawesi islands, a devastating ferry fire has triggered a large-scale search and rescue operation, leaving at least five people dead and 41 others unaccounted for as of Sunday evening, Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) confirmed.
The blaze broke out between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. local time on the Mutiara Sentosa 2, a 525-foot passenger and cargo ferry operating the popular route from Surabaya — Indonesia’s second-largest city located in East Java — to Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi. At the time of the incident, the vessel was carrying a total of 271 people: 232 passengers and 39 crew members, and was traveling through waters off Sumenep regency, near the northern tip of Madura Island, when the fire ignited.
According to Basarnas’ official statement, ferry operator PT Atosim Lampung Pelayaran alerted the Surabaya search and rescue office roughly one hour after the fire was first reported by the vessel’s captain. Initial contact with the captain was maintained to confirm the vessel’s position, but all communication was lost shortly after the alert. By 9:45 a.m., authorities were able to pinpoint the ferry’s location approximately 19 nautical miles north of Buruan Sapudi island, after coordinating with the nearby cargo vessel Meratus Project 3. That cargo ship was unable to approach the burning ferry for close rescue operations, however, as it was carrying a load of flammable materials that posed a major safety risk.
Footage released by Basarnas and user-generated videos circulating across social media and private messaging groups paint a terrifying picture of the incident. Thick plumes of black smoke billowed from one side of the ferry before spreading across most of the vessel’s hull, while bright orange flames crawled through lower decks. Terrified passengers, almost all of whom had donned life jackets, clustered on the exposed upper decks and forward bow of the ship waiting for rescue, with some forced to jump into the surrounding sea to escape the spreading fire. By the time nearby vessels arrived on scene, the fire had engulfed nearly the entire ferry, leaving only the bridge and forward bow as safe gathering points for trapped passengers.
Just before 10 a.m., a tugboat and a second passing commercial vessel moved in to begin evacuating survivors from the burning craft. By Sunday afternoon, a total of 225 passengers and crew had been pulled from the water or evacuated from the ferry, and five bodies had been recovered from the incident site. That left 41 people still missing, as rescue teams continued to comb the surrounding waters for survivors.
Multiple rescue assets were dispatched to the remote incident site to support the operation. A large rescue vessel departed Surabaya for the area, though officials estimated the trip would take approximately six hours to complete. A smaller rigid inflatable boat from the local Sumenep rescue post was also deployed, but was forced to return to shore due to dangerous rough seas and high waves that made navigation unsafe. The Indonesian Navy has also dispatched a warship to the area to assist with search and recovery efforts.
The Mutiara Sentosa 2 is a 160-meter-long, 25-meter-wide ferry that regularly operates the Surabaya-Makassar route, a 40-hour crossing that serves as a key transport link for domestic travelers and cargo moving between Java, Indonesia’s most populated main island, and Sulawesi to the east. Ferries are the primary mode of inter-island travel for Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago made up of more than 17,000 individual islands that is home to 277 million people. However, transportation disasters are a regular occurrence across the country, with weak enforcement of maritime safety standards frequently cited as a contributing factor in major incidents.
As of Sunday evening, the cause of the fire has not been determined, and official investigations into the incident are still ongoing. The reporting was led by Karmini from Jakarta, with additional contributing reporting from Associated Press writer Edna Tarigan, also based in Jakarta.