Negligence of Terra Drone Boss That Killed 22 Employees in Fire

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The defendant in the PT Terra Drone Indonesia office fire case, Michael Wishnu Wardana, has been sentenced to two years in prison for the office fire that killed 22 employees. Michael, who is also the president director (dirut) of the drone services company, is deemed negligent in preventing, mitigating, and extinguishing the fire that occurred in his office building. As a result, 22 of his employees died in the Terra Drone office fire on 9 December 2025. “First, he did not provide fire detection sensors and smoke detection sensors in the PT Terra Drone Indonesia office building,” stated the prosecutor during the trial at the Central Jakarta District Court (PN), Kemayoran, on Monday (11/5/2026). Due to this negligence, several employees in the PT Terra Drone Indonesia office building did not receive timely information or warnings when the fire occurred. Several employees were delayed in evacuating and saving themselves. Second, Michael is said to have not provided emergency ladders and adequate emergency access in the office building. This caused several employees to have difficulty evacuating and saving themselves during the fire. Third, the president director of PT Terra Drone Indonesia did not optimise air circulation in his office building, so when the fire occurred, thick smoke from the fire containing carbon monoxide could not be circulated optimally and accumulated inside the building. “And it caused the thick smoke from the fire containing carbon monoxide to be inhaled excessively by several employees, who had difficulty evacuating or saving themselves,” explained the prosecutor. In addition, he did not adequately socialise the standard operating procedure (SOP) regarding fires to the employees working in that office. This is said to have caused the employees to be unprepared and unresponsive in carrying out initial fire extinguishing efforts as well as evacuation efforts or saving themselves when the fire occurred. Fifth, President Director Michael Wishnu did not provide adequate portable fire extinguishers (APAR) in the PT Terra Drone Indonesia office building.