Five K!lled, 87 Missing After Passenger Ferry Catches Fir£ Off Philippines
Five Killed, 87 Missing After Passenger Ferry Catches Fire Off Philippines
Footage released by the coast guard showed the ship fully engulfed in flames as rescue teams worked through the night.
A fire that engulfed a passenger ferry off Coron, Palawan, on Wednesday evening has killed at least five people, with 87 others still unaccounted for, the Philippine Coast Guard confirmed on Thursday.
The blaze broke out aboard the MV June Aster around 6:45 p.m. local time, roughly 2.2 kilometres offshore, while the vessel was en route from Manila to Coron a popular tourist destination, according to AFP.
Footage released by the coast guard showed the ship fully engulfed in flames as rescue teams worked through the night.
Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Noemie Cayabyab told a local radio station that 43 people have now been rescued 38 passengers and four crew initially, plus one additional survivor confirmed hours later, though their identity has not yet been verified. The vessel’s manifest listed 134 people on board 117 passengers and 17 crew.
“Based on the data we have right now on rescued and the casualties, we still have 87 people who are unaccounted for,” Cayabyab said, cautioning that the figures were “live” and subject to change as search and rescue operations continued.
Efforts to fully extinguish the fire were still ongoing as of Thursday, hampered by strong currents and thick smoke.
Families searching for missing relatives and even a pet dog have flooded the Coron town mayor’s Facebook page with pleas for information. No foreign nationals were reported among those on board.
The tragedy adds to a grim pattern of maritime disasters in the Philippines. In January, the MV Trisha Kerstin 3 sank along a similar route, killing at least 52 of more than 340 people aboard the same stretch of water where 31 people died in 2023 when fire broke out on the Lady Mary Joy 3.
