Wife's Anguish as Husband Missing from Manifest After Ferry Fire

The family of a passenger aboard the ill-fated KM Mutiara Sentosa 2 is waiting in agonising suspense for news of Deni Tristiawan (35). His wife, Devi, revealed that his name was not on the passenger manifest. Devi said she last communicated with her husband on Sunday at 7 a.m. Western Indonesian Time. When she tried to call him back, the line was no longer connected. “I kept trying to call him back but couldn’t get through. Until now there’s been no contact. He was going to Sulawesi with a friend, but he didn’t bring a co-driver; he’s a lorry driver,” Devi told reporters at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya. The Gresik resident added that her husband was a veteran driver, but this was his first trip to Sulawesi. “This was the first time (sending goods by truck via sea route). He was carrying iron and coils,” she said. She only discovered the ship had caught fire through a live stream on TikTok. She then tried to gather information from her husband’s colleagues. “I saw it on a TikTok live stream around midday, because no one told me. I searched for information and asked around, and found out that the ship my husband was on was on fire,” Devi recounted. “I immediately went to the garage where he works. I looked for information from his friends, and they told me to come here. I contacted the administrators, and they told us to gather here,” she concluded. The severe fire on the KM Mutiara Sentosa 2 was first detected on Sunday morning. The 160-metre Ro-Ro vessel, owned by PT Atosim Lampung Pelayaran (ALP), had departed Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya bound for Makassar, carrying 232 passengers—mostly drivers of logistics vehicles—and 181 vehicles. The first emergency report was relayed by the ship’s management and the Tanjung Perak Harbour Master to the Surabaya Search and Rescue Office at 8:24 a.m. Western Indonesian Time, after communication with the captain was lost. By the time rescue vessels reached the coordinates, the ship was almost completely engulfed in flames. Panic ensued as hundreds of passengers crowded the bridge and bow areas wearing orange life jackets, with some reportedly jumping into the open sea before being rescued by nearby vessels.