Bali SAR: No Passengers or Crew Remain on KMP Putri Yasmin

Based on aerial and marine monitoring conducted by the joint Bali SAR team regarding the fire on the passenger ferry KMP Putri Yasmin in the waters off Sekotong Beach, West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, the Denpasar SAR Office has stated that there are no longer any passengers or crew on board the vessel.

Head of the Denpasar Search and Rescue Office, I Nyoman Sidakarya, said his office has also coordinated with the Mataram SAR Office. “Today we carried out a SAR search operation for the KMP Putri Yasmin which caught fire. Today we also deployed an air asset, a helicopter from SGI Air Bali, which we operated for approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes,” Sidakarya said on Wednesday afternoon.

He explained that the SAR operation involved searching both by air and at sea. In addition to the total of 173 people who have been evacuated—to Padang Bai Port in Bali and to Lembar Port in Lombok—the SAR team stated that no passengers or crew were found on the KMP Putri Yasmin or in the vicinity of the vessel.

“We have conducted a search on the burning Putri Yasmin vessel. But we did not see any crew members still on board the burning ship, and there were five liferafts or rubber boats but no victims or passengers,” Sidakarya said. “We observed the liferafts, approximately five of them on the surface. But there were no victims or anyone we were searching for; it was completely clear. Hopefully, what we are doing in this humanitarian mission proceeds safely and smoothly,” he continued.

Meanwhile, as of Wednesday afternoon, a total of 173 victims had been evacuated from the KMP Putri Yasmin which caught fire in the waters off Sekotong Beach, West Lombok. Public relations officer for the Mataram SAR Office, I Gusti Lanang Wiswananda, reported the confirmed number of victims evacuated at the SAR post. “Preliminary information confirmed at the SAR post indicates the total number of victims evacuated is 173 people,” he wrote in a short message on Wednesday afternoon.

Wiswananda said all victims were evacuated using several vessels, namely KN SAR 220 Mataram, Portlink II, KAL Lembar, a yacht named ‘no comment’, a Polairud vessel, and a yacht named ‘stell here’. A total of 59 victims, including one Australian foreign national, were evacuated using KN SAR 220 Mataram. Then, 35 victims were evacuated by Portlink II and 18 victims were evacuated by KAL Lembar. The yacht ‘no comment’ also evacuated 58 victims. Of those 58 victims, 24 victims, including one Australian foreign national, were transferred using an RBB, 25 victims were transferred using Polairud, and 9 victims were transferred using a RIB. Finally, the yacht ‘stellhere’ evacuated 3 victims. Wiswananda said that of the three evacuated to the yacht ‘steelhere’, one victim died.

Previously, the KMP Putri Yasmin was reported to be crossing from Padangbai Port in Karangasem, Bali, to Lembar Port in West Lombok, NTB. At around 04:39 WITA, the captain of Rescue Boat 220 Mataram, Nurdin, reported the fire on the KMP Putri Yasmin to the Mataram SAR Office. The location of the ship fire was in the waters off Sekotong Beach, at coordinates 8°43’12.37”S-115°47’35.93”E, approximately 16.84 nautical miles away with a heading of 272.37 from the position of RB 220 Mataram.