JAKARTA, Indonesia (BN24) — The number of passengers rescued from a ferry that caught fire off Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province has risen dramatically to 575, far surpassing initial reports, officials said Monday, as search teams continued looking for two people still missing.
The KM Barcelona V-A ferry was engulfed in flames Sunday during its routine route between the ports of Melonguane and Manado. Initial reports based on the ferry’s manifest said only 280 passengers and 15 crew were on board, and at least five people were believed dead. However, authorities later revised the death toll to three, including a pregnant woman, and said many more passengers were on the vessel than originally listed.
A spokesperson for the Manado Search and Rescue Agency confirmed Monday that 575 individuals were rescued, highlighting the persistent issue of inaccurate manifests on Indonesian ferries. Discrepancies in passenger records are a recurring problem that complicates emergency operations and often point to systemic overcrowding.
“Based on our data, 575 survivors have been accounted for, and we continue searching for two passengers who remain missing,” said First Adm. Franky Pasuna Sihombing of the Indonesian navy.
The KM Barcelona V-A caught fire around midday Sunday, prompting a large-scale rescue operation involving a coast guard ship, six other rescue vessels, and several inflatable boats. Local fishermen also helped pull survivors from the water, many of them found wearing life jackets and drifting in rough seas.
Among the survivors was a two-month-old baby rescued with seawater in its lungs. The infant was stabilized at a nearby hospital, rescue officials said.
Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of over 17,000 islands, relies heavily on ferries for inter-island transport. But ferry accidents are frequent due to overloading, poor vessel maintenance, and weak enforcement of safety regulations. The KM Barcelona V-A had a maximum capacity of 600 passengers.
The fire follows a series of deadly maritime incidents in Indonesia in recent weeks. Just three days earlier, a speedboat carrying 18 people capsized in a storm, with all passengers rescued by the next day. Earlier in July, a ferry sank near the resort island of Bali, killing at least 19 and leaving 16 others missing. That disaster prompted a two-week search effort involving over 600 rescuers, navy ships, helicopters, and divers.
In Sunday’s incident, rescue efforts remain underway as authorities search for the remaining missing individuals and begin investigating the cause of the fire.
AP
