Indonesian rescue teams continued searching on Monday for passengers who may still be missing after 229 people were rescued from a ferry that caught fire a day earlier in waters off Java, with at least five fatalities recorded.
The Mutiara Sentosa 2 ferry was en route 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. near Sumenep regency. Initial records from the ship’s manifest indicated that the vessel was carrying 232 passengers and 39 crew members at the time of the incident.
However, authorities later disclosed that the actual number of people on board could be higher than the official manifest figure. After rescuing 229 people and recovering five bodies, officials said the exact number of missing passengers remained uncertain. They are now working with information from survivors and victims’ families to establish the correct number of people still unaccounted for.
Nanang Sigit, head of the Surabaya Search and Rescue Office, said discrepancies between passenger numbers and official records are common in Indonesia’s maritime sector. He explained that such differences, often caused by overcrowding, can make search and rescue operations more difficult.
The cause of the fire has not been established, with authorities continuing investigations into what triggered the incident.
The ferry was carrying about 180 vehicles, mostly trucks, along with an excavator, when the fire started.
One of the survivors, Ahmad Abdul Karim, said the fire appeared to have originated from a truck located on the lower vehicle deck.
“Fanned by the wind, the flames spread extremely quickly,” Karim said, “In less than 30 minutes, everyone had been instructed to move to the bow of the ferry.”
