On a Friday morning in May, Mount Dukono — a volcano on the Indonesian island of Halmahera that has erupted continuously since 1933 — claimed three lives when roughly twenty climbers entered a restricted zone in pursuit of online content. The mountain offered no new warnings; its danger was ancient and well-documented. What was new was the appetite that drew people past the signs and into the ash. Three bodies remain on the slopes, unreachable, as the volcano continues to speak in the only language it has ever known.
Three hikers killed after entering restricted Indonesian volcano zone for online content
Three people killed (one Indonesian, two Singaporeans) and five injured when Mount Dukono erupted; three bodies remain on volcano unable to be evacuated.
Many people remain determined to climb, driven by the desire to create online content
Mark
Why would twenty people ignore a clear warning about an active volcano?
Mimi
The police chief said it plainly—they wanted to film it. To post it. To be the person who had footage from inside a restricted zone.
Mark
But they knew it was restricted. They knew the mountain was dangerous.
Mimi
Knowing and believing are different things. A volcano that's been erupting since 1933 can feel almost like a feature of the landscape. Until it isn't.
Mark
Three people died. Did that change anything about how authorities will respond next time?
Mimi
They're planning to question the survivors, to understand who organized it, who encouraged it. But the real question is whether warnings will ever be enough when the reward—attention, views, a story to tell—feels so immediate.
Mark
The bodies are still on the mountain.
Mimi
Yes. The eruptions haven't stopped, and the terrain is too dangerous. They're trapped there, and the families are waiting.
Mark
Is this a new problem?
Mimi
The volcano is old. But the incentive to climb it for content—that's new. It's changed the calculation of risk in ways authorities are still trying to understand.
The Pulse
- Mount Dukono erupted at 7:41 a.m. with enough force to hurl ash six miles into the sky, catching climbers who had illegally entered a high-alert restricted zone the night before.
- About twenty people ignored posted warnings, social media alerts, and a nearly century-long eruption record — authorities say the draw was the chance to film themselves on an active volcano for online audiences.
- Rescue teams launched an emergency evacuation after a distress signal reached them, successfully bringing seventeen climbers to safety, including seven Singaporean nationals, while five others were treated for injuries.
- Three people — one Indonesian resident and two Singaporean nationals — did not survive; their bodies remain stranded on the volcano because ongoing eruptions and treacherous terrain make recovery impossible.
- Police are now questioning surviving climbers to determine how the illegal ascent was organized and whether criminal accountability can be established, as officials warn that the hunger for shareable content is outpacing basic survival instinct.
On a Friday morning in May, Mount Dukono — a volcano on the Indonesian island of Halmahera that has erupted continuously since 1933 — claimed three lives when roughly twenty climbers entered a restricted zone in pursuit of online content. The mountain offered no new warnings; its danger was ancient and well-documented. What was new was the appetite that drew people past the signs and into the ash. Three bodies remain on the slopes, unreachable, as the volcano continues to speak in the only language it has ever known.
Mount Dukono has been erupting continuously since 1933, and on a Friday morning in May it erupted again — violently enough to send ash more than six miles skyward. This time, people were on the slopes. About twenty climbers had entered a restricted zone the day before, fully aware that the mountain carried a high-alert status. Signs were posted. Warnings had circulated on social media. They went anyway, drawn by the desire to film themselves on an active volcano and share the footage online.
The eruption struck at 7:41 a.m. local time, trapping those still on the mountain. An emergency signal reached rescue teams, who moved quickly. By Friday afternoon, seventeen climbers had been evacuated safely — among them seven Singaporean nationals — and five were treated for injuries. Two Indonesian rescuers who joined the operation helped guide teams toward the missing.
Three people did not come down: one local resident from Ternate and two Singaporean nationals. Their bodies remain on the volcano. The ongoing eruptions and the difficult terrain have made recovery impossible, and Indonesia's Geology Agency noted the mountain had produced some of its strongest activity in decades that morning.
Authorities plan to question the surviving climbers to understand how the group organized and who bears responsibility for the decision to ignore restrictions. But the broader pattern was already plain: people had weighed a century-old erupting volcano against the pull of online content — and chose the content. The mountain is still erupting. The investigation is just beginning.
Mount Dukono erupted without warning on a Friday morning in May, and when the ash cleared, three people were dead on the volcano's slopes. The mountain, located on the remote Indonesian island of Halmahera, had been rumbling continuously since 1933—a fact that made no difference to the roughly twenty climbers who set out the day before to reach its nearly 1,355-meter summit. They knew the zone was off-limits. They went anyway.
Authorities were blunt about the motivation. North Halmahera police chief Erlichson Pasaribu said the climbers understood the restrictions. The mountain carried a high-alert status. Signs were posted. Warnings circulated on social media. But the pull of online content—the chance to film themselves on an active volcano, to broadcast that moment to an audience—overrode caution. "Many people remain determined to climb, driven by the desire to create online content," Pasaribu said. It was a calculus that cost three lives.
The eruption came at 7:41 a.m. local time, violent enough to send a column of ash more than six miles into the sky. The climbers who were still on the mountain when it happened became trapped. An emergency signal reached rescue teams, and the evacuation began. By Friday afternoon, seventeen of the climbers had been brought down safely—seven Singaporean nationals among them, along with two Indonesian rescuers who had joined the operation and helped guide teams toward the missing. Five of those evacuated were injured.
The three who did not come down included one local resident from Ternate, in the same province as the volcano, and two Singaporean nationals. Their bodies remained on the mountain. The ongoing eruptions and the treacherous terrain made recovery impossible. Rescue teams could not reach them. The volcano, which had produced some of its strongest activity in decades on that Friday morning according to Indonesia's Geology Agency, continued to make the slopes too dangerous to traverse.
The incident raised immediate questions about enforcement and accountability. Police said they would question the climbers who had made the ascent, trying to understand how the group had organized, who had encouraged them, and whether anyone bore responsibility for the decision to ignore the restrictions. The investigation would unfold in the coming days. But the larger pattern was already clear to officials: people were willing to risk their lives, and the lives of rescue teams, for the chance to create shareable moments. The mountain had been erupting for nearly a century. The hunger for content was newer, and apparently more powerful.
Notable Quotes
They were aware that climbing was prohibited as the mountain is a restricted zone due to its high alert status, but insisted on going ahead.— North Halmahera police chief Erlichson Pasaribu
Friday's eruption was among the strongest during this period.— Lana Saria, head of Indonesia's Geology Agency
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