JAKARTA: Authorities on Wednesday expanded the search across the Sunda Strait for five photojournalists and three others who went missing near Mount Anak Krakatau earlier this week, as several areas affected by the volcano’s ashfall began returning to normal.
A joint search and rescue team involving the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), the National Police and the Navy deployed five teams to search a wider area after Tuesday’s operation failed to locate the group.
The missing photojournalists are Muhammad Bagus Khoirunas of state news agency Antara, Arie Basuki of Merdeka.com, Yudistiro Pranoto of iNews, Daus of Turkey’s Anadolu Agency and freelance photographer Donal Husni.
They were travelling with two speedboat crew members and a tour guide.
The group left Pagedongan pier in Carita, Pandeglang, Banten, at around 2pm on Monday aboard a speedboat to cover Mount Anak Krakatau, which sits in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra and had been erupting continuously for 25 hours from Friday night into Saturday, blanketing surrounding areas with volcanic ash.
Authorities recorded the boat losing contact at 3.04pm the same day.
“We are now expanding the search area to the southwest of Anak Krakatau based on our map results,” Banten Basarnas operations section head Riski Dwiyanto said in Pandeglang on Wednesday, Antara reported.
As of Wednesday evening, authorities had yet to locate the group.
Riski said Basarnas had brought its Lampung office into the operation after search mapping indicated that the vessel could have drifted into waters under its jurisdiction.
The Navy also deployed three warships and several smaller vessels from its Banten and Lampung bases to widen the search across the Sunda Strait.
Anak Krakatau’s eruption on Sept 4 extended an episode of heightened activity that began in July, when the state volcanology agency raised the volcano’s alert status to Level III, the second-highest level, and prohibited activity within 3km of its active crater.
The conditions around the volcano have complicated efforts to find the missing people, with strong currents and winds reportedly hampering Tuesday’s search.
Antara president director Benny Siga Butarbutar said the agency had dispatched a special team from its Jakarta headquarters and Banten bureau to strengthen communication and coordination with authorities.
“We keep encouraging officers to increase the intensity of the search for this group of journalists whose whereabouts remain unknown,” Benny said in a statement Tuesday night.
While the search continued, authorities in several areas affected by the ashfall began easing restrictions as volcanic activity subsided.
Schools in capital Jakarta and its neighbouring Depok in West Java resumed in-person classes on Wednesday after two days of remote learning, while all eight airports temporarily closed earlier in the week had reopened by Tuesday as ash cleared from surrounding airspace.
Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung said the decision to resume in-person classes was partly based on the normalisation of flight operations at Greater Jakarta’s main Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
“This return to class is partly informed by flight operations, which are now running normally,” Pramono said Tuesday.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said prevailing easterly winds meant volcanic ash was “unlikely to reach Jakarta” again, although it cautioned that atmospheric conditions remained complex.
“If Krakatau erupts, [the ash] should head towards the west or slightly north,” BMKG principal secretary Guswanto said on Tuesday.
Other areas, however, remained more cautious.
Tangerang city extended remote learning through Friday, with Mayor Sachrudin saying the measures were intended to protect students from possible exposure to volcanic ash.
Lampung similarly extended remote learning through Thursday as authorities continued to monitor Anak Krakatau’s activity.
The volcano continued to erupt early on Wednesday, although the volcanology agency noted the latest eruption lasted only 28 seconds, consistent with the shorter, intermittent bursts observed since the longer eruption over the weekend.- Jakarta Post/ANN
