Five dead and dozens missing after fire aboard Indonesian ferry
At least five people have died and 41 remain missing after a fire broke out aboard a crowded ferry off Java. The Mutiara Sentosa 2 was under way from Surabaya to Makassar in Sulawesi on Sunday morning with about 39 crew members and 232 passengers aboard when fire took hold at around 0600 local time as she transited past Madura Island. More than 220 people have been rescued.
The response depended almost entirely on merchant shipping in the area. Vessels that diverted to assist included the Meratus Pematang Siantar, which accounted for 109 rescues on its own, along with the Hasnur 26, Meratus Project 3, Transco Arafura, Prakarsa Mas and SC Aila XVII. That a single good samaritan vessel recovered nearly half the survivors indicates both the scale of the emergency and how far the outcome rested on ships that happened to be within reach.
One detail from the timeline will feature in any investigation. The fire was not reported to the authorities until an hour after it began, according to the national rescue agency. An hour is a very long delay on a burning passenger ship, and it is the difference between a coordinated response arriving while people are still aboard and one arriving after they have entered the water.
Survivors gathered on the bow as heat and smoke advanced, and appeared to be in precarious circumstances in video from the scene. The missing are believed to have jumped over the side to escape the fire, according to local reports. Conditions were poor for a search: footage showed strong wind and moderately rough seas. By late Sunday no personnel remained visible on deck and efforts had shifted to finding survivors in the water.
Early video showed heavy smoke from the aft third of the vessel; later footage indicated that nearly the entire ship had burned through, judging by the smoke and the scorched paint along her topsides. The Mutiara Sentosa 2, formerly the Golden Bird 5, was a 1992-built passenger ferry of 3,800 dwt capacity, owned and operated by a domestic company and in Indonesian service since at least 2015. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
