Indonesian Navy patrol vessel sinks following engine room fire

KRI Siliman (foreground), seen here while conducting interdiction operations against a general cargo ship in August 2024. (Indonesian Navy Armada I)

An Indonesian Navy Sibarau (Attack)-class patrol vessel sank on 28 September following a fire that broke out in its engine room.

The sinking occurred while the vessel, KRI Siliman, with pennant number 848, was anchored off Belawan in North Sumatra, according to an incident report that was provided to Janes on 30 September.

At the time of the incident, Siliman was participating in surveillance operations along the Malacca Strait when it anchored at Buoy 4 in the Belawan channel at approximately 2000 h local time.

At 2020 h local time, the vessel's crew members detected flames in the engine room and initiated onboard firefighting procedures.

However, the blaze could not be contained, and the crew members began evacuation procedures at 2130 h local time.

All 21 personnel from the patrol vessel were subsequently rescued by vessels in the vicinity including tugboats and the Indonesian Navy's non-commissioned vessel, KAL Tarihu .

The fire intensified and spread to the vessel's bow by 2205 h local time despite continued firefighting efforts by tugboats TD Sei Deli III and KT Hang Tuah V .

Siliman also began to list to port by approximately 10° around this time, according to the incident report.

At 2303 h local time, flames re-emerged in the engine room despite having been extinguished earlier, and the vessel's port hull pennant number was observed to be level with the waterline.