Search Ends for 8 Missing After Anak Krakatau Eruption Coverage
Residents in Depok held a memorial for iNews journalist Yudistiro Pranoto after Indonesia’s joint search team ended its operation for eight people missing near Anak Krakatau.
DEPOK, Indonesia — The end of a search for five journalists and three boat crew members missing near the active Anak Krakatau volcano has left families and colleagues across Indonesia mourning, as communities gathered in Depok to remember one of the journalists.
Residents filled Al-Wafa Mosque in the Nuansa Asri Cinangka housing complex in Sawangan on Friday night, Sept. 18, 2026, for prayers for Yudistiro Pranoto, an iNews journalist. He was among eight people who lost contact while traveling by speedboat to report on volcanic activity in the Sunda Strait, between the islands of Java and Sumatra.
Yudistiro and four other journalists, two boat crew members and a guide departed from Anyer on Monday, Sept. 7. Indonesia’s joint search and rescue team later formally ended its search. The gathering at the mosque brought together neighbors who knew Yudistiro and sought to support his family as the prospects of finding the missing group faded.
The families had appealed for the search to continue. On Thursday, Sept. 17, relatives, including the wife of Muhamad Bagus Khoirunnas, a journalist with Indonesia’s state news agency, ANTARA, asked officials at the national search and rescue post in Carita, Pandeglang, to extend the operation. They said key areas had not yet been reached.
Journalists hold prayers across Indonesia
The mourning extended well beyond Depok. In Palu, capital of Central Sulawesi, dozens of journalists from the Indonesian Photojournalists Association, the Indonesian Television Journalists Association, the Alliance of Independent Journalists and other media groups held prayers at a city park on Tuesday evening, Sept. 15.
Muhammad Rifki Hasan, head of the Palu chapter of the photojournalists’ association, said he hoped the prayers would offer strength to the five missing journalists. In Bengkulu, residents and media workers gathered after midday prayers at Baitul Izzah Grand Mosque on Wednesday, Sept. 16.
Prof. KH Zulkarnain Dali, head of the Indonesian Ulema Council’s Bengkulu chapter, said prayer was a weapon for believers. ANTARA’s Bengkulu bureau chief, Anom Prihantoro, welcomed the gathering, saying he had known one of the missing agency journalists personally.
Safety concerns for media crews
The loss of five journalists and three boat crew members in a single incident has underscored the risks faced by media workers covering natural hazards. Their disappearance has prompted renewed concern over the safety of journalists reporting from dangerous environments, though the supplied account did not detail the circumstances that led to the group losing contact.
With the official search over, families and colleagues have been left to grieve and to hope that the missing will be remembered, while communities continue to offer support through prayer.
