Fire and Sinking Lead Indonesian Ship Accidents, KNKT Cites Oversight Lapses

The National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) has identified fire and sinking as the most common causes of ship accidents in Indonesia. "The most accidents are ship fires, then the ship sinks," said KNKT Chairman Soerjanto Tjahjono in a webinar held by the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI), quoted by Antara, Saturday, September 19. Soerjanto said that based on data from 2003-2026, there were 46 cases of Roll-on/Roll-off (RORO) ship accidents that had been completed by the KNKT. Of this number, accidents due to fire reached 44 percent, while accidents due to sunken ships amounted to 35 percent. According to Soerjanto, the data shows that supervision of cargo or ship manifests is still not optimal. In fact, regulations regarding the safety and transportation of goods on ships are available. "Regulations or those who regulate the problem of dangerous goods on this ship are quite good, but the implementation of the regulation is not optimal," he said. Vehicle Load Becomes a Concern Soerjanto explained that KNKT also recommended that regulators implement regulated agents. This step is necessary so that all goods entering the ship can be known and well supervised. Based on the results of the KNKT's investigation into ship fire accidents from 2014-2026, of the 19 fire incidents, only three cases were caused by the ship. Meanwhile, another 16 cases were caused by cargo carried by trucks or vehicles transported by ship. Soerjanto emphasized that a number of KNKT recommendations related to the ship accident focused on the aspects of supervision and control. "So, the main problem is that if we can increase supervision and control, especially for the shipping mode, its contribution is 72 percent. So, the most important thing to improve is the problem of supervision and control of the implementation of existing rules," he said.