Coron Ferry Fire Kills Five, Leaves 87 Missing
The ferry June Aster caught fire Wednesday evening near Coron Island in the Philippines, carrying 134 people. The coast guard confirms five dead, 42 rescued, and 87 still missing.
At least five people are dead and 87 are still missing after the passenger ferry June Aster caught fire on Wednesday, September 9, at around 6:45 p.m. local time, in waters near Coron Island, in the Philippine province of Palawan. The Philippine Coast Guard said the ship had sailed out of Manila and was on its way to Coron when the fire broke out, with 134 people on the passenger manifest.
Coast guard figures show 117 passengers and 17 crew members were on board. Spokesperson Commodore Noemi Kajabjab confirmed that none of them were foreign nationals.
How many have been rescued, and how many are still missing
Forty two people have been rescued, 38 passengers and four crew members. Five deaths have been confirmed, while 87 people remain unaccounted for. Kajabjab told radio station DZXL:
Based on the data we have at this moment, rescued and dead, we are still searching for 87 people.
The spokesperson cautioned that the figures are provisional and could still change as the search goes on. “The numbers may change while the search and rescue operation continues,” Kajabjab said, adding that the coast guard is updating the data regularly as new reports come in from the field.
The ship was located about 1.2 nautical miles northeast of the town center in the municipality of Coron, where the fire was first reported. Strong sea currents then pushed the wreck adrift, from roughly 4 nautical miles off the village of Turda at first to 7.68 nautical miles later on. Field reports say the vessel’s exact position shifted several times overnight as the currents changed.
Bad weather, high waves and strong currents are slowing the search on the water, hampering rescue boats and shifting the wreck’s position hour by hour. According to the coast guard, the operation now involves substations in Turda and Tara, firefighters from Coron, the municipal disaster risk reduction office and a dedicated coast guard task force. The coast guard vessel BRP Suluan, designated MRRV 4406, was also dispatched from the port of El Nido to reinforce the rescue fleet already at the scene.
What is known about the cause of the fire
The cause of the fire has not yet been established. The coast guard said it is working with the shipping company and maritime authorities to determine what sparked the blaze, which, according to footage released by the coast guard, engulfed the hull entirely. While the investigation continues, the priority remains finding the 87 people still listed as missing.
Ferry disasters are not uncommon in the Philippines, an archipelago where sea transport is the main link between thousands of islands. Poor vessel maintenance, overcrowding and inconsistent enforcement of safety rules, particularly in remote provinces like Palawan, have been a persistent problem for authorities for years. The country’s deadliest peacetime maritime disaster took place in 1987, when the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker, killing more than 4,300 people.
The Philippine Coast Guard has said the search for those still missing from the June Aster will continue over the coming days, until conditions in the waters around Coron improve. The final count of the dead and the found will depend on how that search unfolds.
