Indonesian rescuers had saved 229 people by August 3 after fire swept through the Mutiara Sentosa 2 off East Java, killing at least five. Officials said more people were aboard than the 271 passengers and crew recorded on the manifest, leaving the number of missing people unclear.

The passenger and vehicle ferry was traveling from Surabaya in East Java to Makassar in South Sulawesi when the fire began between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. local time on August 2. The route is a domestic crossing between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sulawesi.

Manifest discrepancy complicates the search

The manifest listed 232 passengers and 39 crew members. That record initially produced an estimate of 41 missing after 225 people were rescued and five bodies recovered, but the figures changed as more survivors reached shore.

Nearby vessels had rescued 225 people by Sunday afternoon while rough seas forced a rigid inflatable rescue boat to return to shore. Indonesia's navy sent a warship, and a rescue vessel dispatched from Surabaya was expected to need about six hours to reach the site.

By Monday, the rescued total had risen to 229. Nanang Sigit, the search coordinator and head of the Surabaya office of Basarnas, Indonesia's agency responsible for search and rescue, said officials were using reports from survivors and relatives to determine who remained missing.

A rescue vessel moves through waves during a maritime search (illustrative image)

Operator reported the fire about an hour later

The ferry operator, PT Atosim Lampung Pelayaran, notified the Surabaya rescue office about an hour after the blaze began. The company had received a report from the captain, but contact with the ferry was later lost.

Rescuers located the ship about 35 kilometers north of Buruan Sapudi Island after communicating with the cargo vessel Meratus Project 3. The cargo ship could not approach closely because it was carrying flammable material, while a tugboat and another passing vessel began evacuating passengers.

The ferry also carried 180 vehicles, most of them trucks. One survivor told the Associated Press that he saw vehicles burning on the lower deck and that the flames spread quickly, but his account does not establish how the fire started.

Cause remains under investigation

Indonesian authorities said the cause remained under investigation. No official finding on the source of the fire had been published at the time of writing, so the available evidence does not show whether the blaze began with a vehicle, the ship's systems or another source.

The Mutiara Sentosa 2 was built in Japan in 1992 and sold to Indonesia in 2015. It is 160 meters long and can carry 689 passengers and 49 crew members, according to the Associated Press; those design figures do not resolve how many people were aboard on August 2.

Domestic ferries sit outside most SOLAS passenger rules

The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) sets construction, equipment and operating standards for passenger ships on international voyages. The International Maritime Organization says those passenger-ship rules generally do not apply to domestic voyages, although many countries use them as a basis for national regulations.

That distinction applies to the Surabaya-Makassar route, which stays within Indonesia. It also means international standards alone cannot show whether the Mutiara Sentosa 2 complied with the Indonesian requirements governing its construction, crew, passenger records, fire protection or emergency response.

The International Maritime Organization adopted voluntary model regulations for domestic ferries in 2022 and began a three-year project in 2025 covering Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The model framework addresses construction, safety management, crew training and operating procedures, but countries must incorporate appropriate measures into their own laws.

Several ships dock at a Southeast Asian port beside cargo facilities (illustrative image)

The investigation will need to separate the fire's origin from the problems that shaped the response. The changing passenger count, delayed notification and rough seas are documented facts, but none by itself proves what caused the blaze.