KNKT Investigate The Sinking Of The Tunu Ship In Ketapang-Gilimanuk Waters

KNKT chairman Soejanto Tjahjono after a press conference at Ketapang Port, Banyuwangi, East Java, Friday (4/7/2025). ANTARA/Novi Husdinariyanto

JAKARTA - The National Transportation Safety Commission or the NTSC has begun to investigate the sinking of KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya on the Ketapang Port track, Banyuwangi-Pelabuhan Gilimanuk, Bali.

KMP Tunu, which carried 53 passengers and 12 crew members and 22 vehicles, experienced a sea accident and sank in the Bali Strait, on Wednesday, July 2, at around 23.35 WIB, after departing from Ketapang Harbor to Gilimanuk Port at 22:56 WIB.

"We will start an investigation from the departing ship, because when we were about to sail the ship we received a sailing agreement letter or SPB (from the authorities)," said KNKT Chairman Soejanto Tjahjono at a press conference at Ketapang Port, Banyuwangi Regency, East Java, Friday, July 4, confiscated by Antara.

The investigation related to the sailing approval letter or SPB, he said, was important to find out whether the requirements for obtaining the SPB had been met or not.

"Starting from the feasibility of ships, documents and others, we will find out and collect the evidence," said Soejanto Tjahjono.

In addition, he continued, officers from the NTSC will also investigate how the emergency response was when the KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya Sea Accident occurred.

"When the ship had departed or sailed and an accident occurred, the ship had actually been trained for emergency response, we had also collected video evidence spread on social media," said Soejanto.

According to him, the NTSC has the task of conducting an investigation to determine for sure the cause of the KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya marine accident on the Ketapang-Gilimanuk route on Wednesday, July 2 that night.

"However, in this SAR operation, we help each other search for survivors and those who died. So what the NTSC is doing is inputting information and coordinating with the SAR team, and after the SAR is complete we will carry out further investigations," he said.

Previously, the Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Dudy Purwagandhi said he had fully handed over to the NTSC to investigate the cause of the KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya marine accident in the Bali Strait.

"Regarding the cause of the marine accident, we handed it over to the NTSC according to its duties to carry out investigations," said the Minister of Transportation at a press conference at Ketapang Port, Banyuwangi Regency, East Java, Thursday night.