Surakman is buried in Pandeglang; Basarnas says the search for the other seven continues as a routine operation, not a reopened joint search

Safety & SecurityUpdatedUpdated: September 25, 2026

A speedboat carrying five journalists and three crew members lost contact near Anak Krakatau on Monday 7 September while covering the eruption. The joint search-and-rescue operation was officially halted on 17 September after ten days, with none of the eight found. On 23 September, DNA testing identified the body found on Enggano Island (Bengkulu) on 12 September as crew member Surakman (60); his remains reached Soekarno-Hatta Airport on the morning of 24 September, where Pandeglang Regent Raden Dewi Setiani received them, and his family buried him the same day. The identification prompted the Indonesian Press Photographers Association (PFI) to formally ask Basarnas and the joint TNI/Polri SAR team to reopen the search, arguing the discovery counts as the new evidence the agency said would justify it. Basarnas has not formally reopened the joint search: Banten SAR head Al Amrad said on 23 September that the seven days plus a three-day extension produced no sign of the remaining victims and that finding Surakman does not automatically restart a large-scale operation, while on 24 September Basarnas head Marsekal Madya Mohammad Syafii said searching "continues" because the operation "has been shifted to a routine operation" — routine monitoring across several regions, including Bengkulu and Enggano Island, without a concentrated focus. The Pandeglang district government says it is in contact with the authorities and respects their decisions, while hoping Surakman's location may help map ocean currents for a possible future discovery of the other seven. Warning broadcasts to vessels in the Sunda Strait continue. This is separate from our articles on airport closures and the volcano's own eruption activity — it is a search-and-rescue story that happens to be connected to the same eruption.

Timeline

Mon 7 Sep, 14:00 WIB
The speedboat Arupadhatu 1 departs Pagedongan Pier in Carita, Pandeglang, Banten, carrying eight people toward Anak Krakatau to cover the ongoing eruption: journalists M. Bagus Khoirunnas (Antara News Agency, Banten bureau), Ari Basuki (Merdeka.com), Yudistiro Pranoto (iNews), Firman Daus (Anadolu Agency) and Donal Husni (freelance), plus captain Warta (55), crew member Surakman (60) and guide Heriyanto (49).
Mon 7 Sep, 14:42–18:13 WIB
Khoirunnas shares his location with a colleague, Abay, at 14:42 WIB; contact with him is lost at 15:04 WIB. The last signal of any kind from the group is a photo guide Heriyanto sends from near the volcano at 18:13 WIB. No contact is received after that.
Tue 8 Sep
Antara's Banten bureau chief, Bayu Kuncahyo, reports the team missing to Basarnas after they fail to return. A search-and-rescue operation begins the same day.
Wed 9 Sep – Thu 10 Sep
The search expands to islands around the volcano and into Lampung waters, though PVMBG restricts direct searches of Sertung Island because it sits inside the 3 km volcanic exclusion zone. The Navy finds one life jacket west of the Cikoneng–Labuan waters near Anyer, Banten, on day 3 (10 September) but cannot confirm it belongs to the missing boat.
Fri 11 Sep
Basarnas head Marsekal Madya M. Syafii announces the operation will run for seven days in total (through Monday 14 September), with a naval ship (KRI Lepu), multiple SAR vessels, a Dauphin AS365 N3+ helicopter, local fishermen and an expanded 2,109-square-nautical-mile search area. He says a formal evaluation meeting — including PVMBG, BMKG and medical personnel — will take place on day seven to decide whether to continue.
Sat 12 Sep
Still no results after five days. The father of one missing journalist tells reporters at the search command post he hopes President Prabowo Subianto will visit.
Sat 12 Sep – Mon 14 Sep
Far to the west, Bengkulu SAR personnel and local residents find an unidentified male body on the coast at Sawang Bengkok, Khayapu village, Enggano Island (North Bengkulu) on 12 September. It is flown to Bengkulu City by Susi Air on 14 September for autopsy. Banten police spokesman Kombes Maruli Hutapea says the body is male, about 165 cm tall, estimated to be over 50, with facial damage, and that the families' ante-mortem DNA data has been handed to the Bengkulu police DVI (disaster victim identification) team for matching.
Sun 13 Sep
On day six, the combined SAR team recovers a jerrycan, two tarpaulins and life jackets from waters near Anak Krakatau. On inspection, two orange life jackets bearing a "Milles.II" marking are confirmed not to match the boat's own equipment (the boat's registered life jackets are red, yellow and purple, with no such marking) — so this find, like the Navy's earlier one, does not confirm the group's fate either way.
Mon 14 Sep
Day seven. Basarnas Banten expands the search further, deploying 18 vessels and one helicopter across six sea sectors and one air sector — 6,649 square nautical miles in total (4,586 at sea, 2,063 in the air), with the largest concentration (11 vessels) still on the sector where earlier debris was found. Operations expert Rangga Aribowo says an extension requires new signs of the victims, their belongings, or witness reports of debris, and that failing that, the case may shift to "siaga" (standby) status — not full closure — meaning the operation could reopen if new leads emerge later. In practice, the search continues past day seven without a formal stop.
Tue 15 Sep
Day eight, still no results. In Sector C (the waters from northeast of Panaitan Island through to the volcano's own coastline), the SAR team lowers a sea reader and flies a drone to within roughly 500 m of Anak Krakatau's shore to check social-media reports of a possible boat sighting; Banten SAR head Al Amrad confirms the report does not check out ("the result is still nil"). No trace of the Arupadhatu 1 or its passengers is found anywhere in the expanded search area. That evening a Banten water-police officer says the Enggano body has not been identified as any of the missing, with no matching identifying features found, and that DNA analysis is continuing.
Wed 16 Sep
Day nine. Around 20 vessels remain deployed — Basarnas SAR ships, Indonesian Navy vessels and Banten water police — and the search widens further still, adding areas around Enggano Island (Bengkulu) and Lampung waters to the existing sectors around the volcano. Hours of searching produce no new clues. In the evening Banten SAR head Al Amrad says all DNA material has been sent to Bengkulu and "we are still waiting."
Thu 17 Sep
Day ten — the third and last day of the extension Basarnas rules allow after the standard seven days. The search is at its widest: 24 vessels and 523 personnel across 8,509 square nautical miles in 10 sectors. That evening, at the joint SAR command post at Marina Carita, Pandeglang, Banten Governor Andra Soni announces that the operation is officially halted: "it is no longer effective, so with a heavy heart this joint operation is declared stopped." Thirteen floating objects were recovered over the ten days, but police water-unit checks linked none of them to the Arupadhatu 1. Al Amrad says the operation will reopen if new signs emerge; broadcasts to ships crossing the Sunda Strait continue, and fishermen and residents are asked to report any finds to the nearest police station or Basarnas Banten. The Enggano DNA results are still pending.
Fri 18 Sep
Families of the missing, joined by leaders of the journalists' media organisations, hold a flower-scattering (tabur bunga) ceremony at Pagedongan Pier — the point the group set out from on 7 September.
Wed 23 Sep
Banten Police chief Inspector General Hengki announces at a press conference at Banten Police headquarters, Serang, that DNA testing — cross-checked with fingerprint and dental records — has identified the Enggano Island body as Surakman (60), crew member of the Arupadhatu 1, from Carita, Pandeglang: "Based on the matching of antemortem and postmortem data with the Bengkulu Police team, genetic DNA testing confirms the body is Surakman." Enggano residents, unable to identify him when the body was found on 12 September, had buried it locally before the exhumation and DNA process. Citing the identification as new evidence, Indonesian Press Photographers Association (PFI) chair Dwi Pambudo formally asks Basarnas and the joint TNI/Polri SAR team to reopen the search: "On the basis of this new evidence, PFI formally requests and urges Basarnas together with the joint TNI/Polri SAR team to immediately reopen the Joint SAR Operation." Banten SAR head Al Amrad says no formal reopening is planned and that finding Surakman does not automatically restart large-scale operations — Basarnas will evaluate the information before deciding next steps, and the Lampung SAR office awaits direction from the SAR mission coordinator if a physical search becomes justified — citing the rules already followed: "Under our rules, the search runs seven days. Within seven days we already extended three days ... after those three days there were no signs of the victims." Basarnas continues e-broadcasts to passing vessels, maritime advisories, and coordination with vessel-traffic services, coastal radio stations and fishermen along the Sunda Strait and the Lampung coast.
Thu 24 Sep
Surakman's remains land at Soekarno-Hatta Airport around 08:00 WIB on a flight from Bengkulu, received by Pandeglang Regent Raden Dewi Setiani together with Bengkulu and Banten police, before being taken to Pandeglang for burial by his family the same day. The Pandeglang district government says it remains in close contact with Basarnas, the Navy and police and respects whatever decisions they make on the search, while expressing hope that the location where Surakman was found may help investigators map ocean currents and eventually lead to the other two crew members and five journalists. Basarnas head Marsekal Madya Mohammad Syafii says that "up to now further searching is still being carried out" because the operation "has been shifted to a routine operation" — the joint Banten–Lampung special operation is concluded, the search is not formally reopened, and Basarnas describes the work as routine monitoring across several regions, including waters around Bengkulu and Enggano Island, without a concentrated focus on one spot.

Key points

This is a search-and-rescue story, distinct from our articles on airport closures and the volcano's eruption activity — track those separately for travel and volcanic-hazard status.
Status: the active search ended on 17 September and remains halted. One of the eight has now been identified: on 23 September, DNA testing confirmed the body found on Enggano Island on 12 September is crew member Surakman (60), buried by his family in Pandeglang on 24 September. The other seven — five journalists and two crew members — remain unaccounted for.
Reopening: the joint search has not been formally reopened. Basarnas has not acted on the Indonesian Press Photographers Association's (PFI) formal request, which argued the identification counts as new evidence; Banten SAR head Al Amrad said the standard seven days plus a three-day extension already ran with no sign of the remaining victims and that finding Surakman does not automatically restart a large-scale operation. Basarnas head Mohammad Syafii says searching nonetheless continues as a routine operation, monitored across several regions including Bengkulu and Enggano Island. Warning broadcasts to vessels crossing the Sunda Strait continue, and anyone who finds something is asked to report it to the nearest police station or Basarnas Banten.
How Surakman was identified: DNA testing by the Bengkulu Police DVI team, cross-checked against fingerprint and dental records, since the body's condition ruled out visual identification. Enggano residents had buried the body locally on discovery, unable to identify him themselves; it was later exhumed for testing.
The missing journalists work for Antara (Indonesia's national news agency), Merdeka.com, iNews, and Turkey's Anadolu Agency, plus one freelancer — the incident has drawn international coverage (AFP and others).
PVMBG's 3 km exclusion zone around the active crater has itself complicated the search, restricting direct access to at least one nearby island.
No Japanese Embassy advisory was found specifically on this incident; none of the missing are reported as Japanese nationals.
Basarnas did not announce a decision from its 14 September (day 7) evaluation at the time; its officials later described days 8–10 as the three-day extension its rules allow after the standard seven days, and the operation closed at the end of day 10.
By the final day, 24 vessels and 523 personnel were covering 8,509 square nautical miles in 10 sectors — not just the waters around Anak Krakatau but also Enggano Island (Bengkulu) and Lampung — without any confirmed trace of the boat or its passengers.

What this means for your Indonesian entity

If your organization sends staff or contractors toward an active hazard zone — whether journalists, inspectors, or anyone else — this incident is a sober reminder that Indonesia's own 3 km volcanic exclusion radius exists for a reason, and that sea conditions and communications near an erupting volcano can deteriorate faster than planned. There is no compliance or operational angle here for a typical office-based entity; this is a human story we are tracking because it is directly connected to the eruption our other articles cover, and because readers who have been following the crisis will reasonably want to know what happened to it. One of the eight has now been identified and laid to rest; the joint search for the remaining seven has not been reopened, although Basarnas says searching continues as a routine operation. We will update this article if a formal reopening is announced or anything is found.

Sources

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