Video shows capsized ferry in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province, not Sulawesi

An old video of a ferry sinking in Indonesia has surfaced in social media posts that falsely claim it shows an incident in Sulawesi island in April. The clip in fact circulated in a news report about the passenger ferry capsizing in West Kalimantan province on Borneo in 2021.

"A ferry capsized at the Parepare Port, I hope there are no fatalities," reads an Indonesian-language Facebook post on April 25, 2025.

The post includes a video showing people witnessing a ship slowly capsizing. Some voices yelling "God is Great" in Arabic are heard in the background. 

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Screenshot of the misinformation post, captured on April 29, 2025

The same video was shared elsewhere on Facebook after a boat carrying eight passengers capsized due to extreme weather in the waters of Selayar Islands Regency, South Sulawesi. Indonesian media organisation Detik reported there were no fatalities during the accident (archived link).

However, there are no official reports of a ferry capsizing at Parepare Port as of May 22. 

A combination of Google reverse image and keyword searches found the same clip used in a news report by Indonesian broadcaster iNews on February 21, 2021 about a ferry sinking in West Kalimantan's Perigi Piai Port (archived link).

The circulating video can be seen at the 14-second mark of the video report, which says the the ship lost balance as passengers disembarked from one side and the docking rope broke.

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Screenshot comparison between the false post (left) and the iNews video

The video matches Google Maps imagery of Perigi Piai port, 1,300 kilometres (807 miles) away from Parepare port in Sulawesi (archived link).

A video of the accident has also been geotagged at Perigi Piai port (archived link).

Indonesian newspaper Kompas published a similar photo of the accident on February 20, 2021 (archived link).

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