Indonesia (GNP): Rescue teams in Indonesia are still combing the waters off Madura island on Monday for 28 people who remain unaccounted for, two days after a passenger ferry caught fire while sailing between Java and Sulawesi. The blaze aboard the KM Mutiara Sentosa, which was carrying 271 people from the East Java city of Surabaya toward Makassar in South Sulawesi, broke out on Sunday and quickly became one of the country’s more serious maritime emergencies this year.
What Happened
The ferry was well into its roughly 40-hour journey along the Surabaya-Makassar route, a corridor that carries both passengers and cargo between Java and Sulawesi, when fire broke out on board. According to accounts from the scene, the vessel was nearly engulfed in flames at the height of the emergency, with passengers crowding onto the bridge and bow as they waited for help to arrive. A nearby tugboat and another passing vessel reached the ferry shortly before 10am and began pulling people from the water and off the burning ship.
By Sunday afternoon, authorities had confirmed five deaths and reported 225 people rescued, with 41 still missing. Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said at the time that a dedicated rescue ship dispatched from Surabaya would take roughly six hours to reach the site, while a smaller inflatable rescue boat launched from a post in Sumenep had to turn back due to rough seas and high waves. The Indonesian Navy deployed a warship to reinforce the operation as conditions on the water remained difficult.
The Search Continues
By Monday, the picture had shifted as more survivors were located. East Java police marine and air affairs director Arman Asmara Syarifuddin told Reuters that of the 271 people originally on board, 238 had now been rescued and five deaths remained confirmed, narrowing the number still missing to 28. To locate them, police, the national search and rescue agency, and the Navy have deployed seven vessels, including a naval corvette, several speed boats, and a patrol boat capable of carrying around 100 passengers, along with a helicopter. The search is currently focused on a stretch of water extending ten miles east and ten miles west of where the fire broke out.
Officials said the operation is expected to run for seven days, with the possibility of extending it a further 14 days if needed. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined and remains under investigation.
Families Waiting at the Port
All survivors pulled from the water were brought to the Port of Gapura Surya Nusantara in Surabaya, where relatives had been gathering anxiously since Sunday evening for word of their loved ones. Among them was a woman named Ria, who was waiting for news of her missing uncle. She said she had tried repeatedly to reach him after hearing about the fire, only to find his phone switched off, and later confirmed through his wife that he had indeed been on board. As of Monday, she said, she still had no way of confirming his condition.
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A Familiar Risk in Indonesian Waters
The incident is a stark reminder of how central ferries remain to daily life across Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where sea travel is often far cheaper and more accessible than flying. That reliance, however, comes with a well-documented safety gap: enforcement of maritime safety standards is inconsistent across the country, and accidents involving passenger vessels occur with troubling regularity. The Mutiara Sentosa, a 160-metre-long, 25-metre-wide vessel built to handle both passengers and freight on the Java-Sulawesi corridor, is one of many ships that keep this vast island nation connected, and its fire underscores how much is riding, quite literally, on those ageing maritime links.
For now, attention remains on the water east and west of Madura island, where rescue crews are racing against time and weather to bring the remaining 28 people home.
