Mutiara Sentosa Survivor Testimony: 7 Horses Lost, 2 Colleagues Missing

Ari Hidayat (47) and his wife Denik Rohana (31) were among hundreds of survivors of the KM Mutiara Sentosa 2 fire in the northern waters of Sumenep Regency, Madura, on Sunday. The couple, residents of Prigen, Pasuruan, East Java, were on their way to deliver seven horses to Makassar, South Sulawesi, when the vessel was engulfed in flames. They were accompanied by two colleagues, Trala (40) and Ferdi (20).

Denik Rohana recounted that the incident began when she woke up at 6 a.m. local time and noticed smoke coming from the lower part of the ship. She immediately looked for her husband, who was feeding their horses on the vehicle deck. Ari Hidayat checked the source of the smoke and discovered a truck already on fire. As the blaze grew, panicked passengers were herded to the open bow deck.

Ari said there was no alarm, only shouts of ‘fire’ from the crew. He managed to call his family briefly before the situation worsened. By 2 p.m., conditions had become so severe that passengers were told to jump into the sea. Ari and his wife leaped overboard and drifted for over an hour before being rescued by a passing tanker. They arrived at the emergency post at Gapura Surya Nusantara, Tanjung Perak Port, Surabaya, late Sunday night, suffering from cramps and shortness of breath.

While the couple survived, their two colleagues remain missing. The seven horses they were transporting, which had already been sold to a buyer in Makassar, could not be saved and are believed to have burned along with the vehicle. Ari estimates his total losses at Rp300 million, including the vehicle. He hopes for compensation, noting that the horses were officially registered on the manifest and had quarantine documents.