Video shows ferry disaster in Indonesia's Sulawesi waters in 2018, not 'Bali Strait accident in 2023'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on July 26, 2023 at 06:10
3 min read
By AFP Indonesia

A video of a ferry accident has been viewed thousands of times on Facebook with a false claim that it shows a boat incident in Indonesia's Bali Strait in July 2023. But the video is actually from a 2018 ferry accident that occurred off Sulawesi island, in the eastern part of the country.

The 30-second video showing a boat with an Indonesian flag about to capsize has been viewed more than 500 times after it was shared here on Facebook on July 9, 2023.

"It occurred on Monday morning, July 9, 2023. It was a Gilimanuk-Ketapang crossing ferry. Let's hope that all the passengers are safe," reads the post's Indonesian caption.

Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on July 20, 2023

Gilimanuk-Ketapang refers to a land crossing point connecting the main Indonesian island of Java and the island of Bali (archived link).

The post appeared after bad weather in Bali Strait in early July 2023 disrupted ferry crossing schedules between Java and Bali (archived link).

The same video has been viewed more than 10,000 times after it was shared in July 2023 alongside a similar claim here and here on Facebook and here on TikTok.

The clip previously circulated in 2019, such as here on Facebook and here and here on YouTube, with the claim that it was also taken in the Bali Strait, racking up more than 54,000 views in total.

However, the claim is false.

The video actually shows an accident in 2018 at another island in Indonesia that killed over 30 people.

A combination of keyword and reverse image searches on Google and Yandex found the same video was published on YouTube by Indonesian broadcaster Kompas TV on July 6, 2018 (archived link).

The Kompas TV's video is titled: "The struggles of a mother and her child to survive when the KM Lestari Maju was sinking".

According to the post's caption, the mother and the child -- both passengers of the ferry KM Lestari Maju -- were later found dead after the vessel sank.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (left) and the genuine video from Kompas TV (right):

Screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (left) and the video published by Kompas TV (right)

Indonesian state-run news agency Antara published a photo of the sinking of the ferry from the same angle as the video on July 3, 2018 (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (left) and the photo published by Antara (right), with corresponding objects highlighted by AFP:

Screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (left) and the photo published by Antara (right)

The ferry, believed to be carrying nearly 190 people, suffered damage to its hull and capsized about 300 metres (330 yards) off Selayar Island, near the larger Indonesian island of Sulawesi, according to this AFP report, which also includes the same picture (archived link).

The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) also published the same photo in their report on page 9 published in October 2018 (archived link). A total of 35 people died in the accident, the official KNKT report says.

Images from the 2018 accident have been shared widely with various false claims, which AFP has debunked here and here.

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