Five Missing from KMP Putri Yasmin Fire Include Owner of Oberoi Luxury Resort
Search and rescue teams are continuing to search for five passengers missing from the KMP Putri Yasmin, which caught fire in the Lombok Strait, off the coast of Sekotong, West Lombok, in the early hours of Wednesday. The identities of most of the missing victims are known from the passenger manifest. The five individuals are Yasir Arafat, Selvina Rambu Mayi, I Made Sutarjana, Slamet Yulianto, and I Ratu Agung Ayu Sekar.
One of the missing, I Made Sutarjana, is the owner of five-star hotels in Bali and Lombok. He is the President Commissioner of PT Widja Putra Karya, the company that owns The Oberoi Beach Resort Bali in Seminyak and The Oberoi Beach Resort Lombok in North Lombok. The Head of the Mataram Search and Rescue Office, Muhammad Hariyadi, confirmed that Sutarjana was listed on the KMP Putri Yasmin passenger manifest.
Hariyadi noted that Sutarjana was registered on the manifest along with three other missing victims, while one other missing person was not on the manifest. That individual was reported missing by her husband, who survived the incident. As of Thursday evening, Sutarjana and the four other missing passengers had not been found. The joint SAR team temporarily suspended the search and planned to resume on Friday morning.
Among the missing is Selvina Rambu Mayi, a 29-year-old from West Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara, who was travelling home to prepare for her traditional wedding. Her cousin, Feri, said she was travelling with her fiancé, who survived the fire. During the incident, Selvina sent a video to a family WhatsApp group showing the panic on board and asked for prayers as she prepared to jump into the sea with other passengers. Her family has not been able to contact her since.
The search operation was halted on Thursday afternoon and resumed on Friday morning. The Head of the Mataram SAR Office, Muhammad Hariyadi, stated that no signs of the five missing victims had been found during Thursday’s search, which involved sea vessels and aerial monitoring by helicopters. The joint SAR team from Lombok and Bali deployed around 50 personnel, two Rigid Inflatable Boats, and two helicopters to comb the waters southwest of the initial fire location and nearby small islands. Hariyadi emphasised that the first three days of the search are critical, expressing hope that the victims might still be found alive within this ‘golden time’.