Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Another ship carrying passengers caught fire, sparking another rescue operation in the heart of the Indonesian archipelago.
Less than two weeks after a fire on the KMP Mutiara Sentosa II claimed five lives, a second ferry caught fire this morning in the waters between Bali and Lombok.
The blaze broke out around 4:30 am on the KM Putri Yasmin while in the Lombok Strait; the boat had left Padangbai in Bali on its way to Lembar, Lombok Island.
The rescue operation saw the evacuation of 172 people by the Indonesian Navy ship and other vessels that reached to the scene. The operation was complicated by sea conditions, with waves reaching four metres.
A 19-year-old Indonesian woman died while at least two people were hospitalised.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
The number of people rescued, however, immediately raised a red flag. According to the official manifest, 131 people should have been aboard the Putri Yasmin, 114 passengers and 17 crew members. Rescuers instead evacuated 172.
The authorities still have to figure out the discrepancy, but it highlights one of the most common problems in maritime accidents in Indonesia.
Two fires in less than two weeks
The Putri Yasmin incident follows that of the Mutiara Sentosa II, a ferry that caught fire on 2 August while sailing off the coast of Madura, eastern Indonesia, en route between Surabaya, Java, and Makassar, South Sulawesi.
Some 271 people were on the ship: 232 passengers and 39 crew members. While the authorities worked for days to check out who was on board and who was missing, five people were confirmed dead.
In this case, too, the actual number of people on board did not reflect the official manifest.
Built in Japan in 1992, the Mutiara Sentosa II, about 160 metres long, was purchased by an Indonesian operator in 2015. It had previously sailed in Japan under the names of Ferry Osaka and subsequently Golden Bird 5.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Some survivors reported seeing flames start in the car deck.
In the 2025, the activity report published by the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), the Indonesian agency that investigates transportation accidents, noted that flaws in passenger registration systems are among the critical issues that still affect the shipping sector.
A daily need for 17,000 islands
The difficulty of ensuring uniform safety standards is also linked to Indonesia's geography. The country is made up of more than 17,000 islands, and maritime transport is essential.
From the relatively short connection between Bali and Lombok to the much longer routes to Sulawesi, the Moluccas, and Papua, thousands of people board ferries, passenger ships, and local vessels every day.
“How can I rely on the safety protocol if there have been lots of sinking and burning ships while hundreds of passengers are on board?” said Suratmo, a regular ferry traveller, speaking to AsiaNews.
Suratmo is especially concerned about the longer routes, such as those between Padang and the Mentawai Islands or between Sibolga and Nias, where the journey can take up to ten hours.
From Tampomas II to today
Inevitably, the latest incidents bring back to mind the Tampomas II, one of the worst maritime tragedies in Indonesian history.
The state-owned ferry Pelni caught fire in January 1981 while sailing in the Java Sea, on its way from Jakarta to Ujung Pandang, now Makassar.
Built in Japan in 1956, the ship had already experienced engine problems before departure. The fire, which broke out in the engine room and the car deck, made normal sailing impossible.
Sea conditions further complicated the evacuation, and the ship sank after drifting for hours.
The exact number of victims is still controversial. Initial reports estimated hundreds of deaths, while the official number of people on board was an issue.
More than a thousand passengers and crew members were listed, but further reports suggested that the actual number may have been higher, partly due to the presence of ticketless passengers.
Contemporary sources also document the difficulties encountered by rescuers in recovering the missing.
The Tampomas II thus became a symbol of the consequences that can occur when a large passenger ship finds itself in difficulty far from the coast and evacuation procedures are inadequate.
Some 45 years later, the problem is no longer just that of obsolete ships. The Indonesian fleet is much larger, and the country has an established system of investigation and safety oversight.
But official reports themselves continue to identify flaws in passenger management systems, inspections, and ship safety.
A summer of accidents
The Putri Yasmin and the Mutiara Sentosa II are not the only maritime accidents recorded in recent weeks. On 15 July, the KM Nurul Salsa sank in waters off the Selayar Islands, in South Sulawesi, after an engine failure.
The vessel was carrying at least 76 people, according to data subsequently verified by authorities: 58 were rescued, four died, and 14 others were reported missing when the search operations were suspended after ten days. Sea conditions complicated the search.
The incident also demonstrated how difficult it is to intervene quickly in the archipelago's most remote areas, where distances are vast and rescue infrastructure less developed.
