Indonesia airports reopen after volcanic eruption
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Flights at some of Indonesia’s busiest airports have resumed after the eruption of a volcano in East Java forced the cancellation of hundreds of services on Friday.
The airports in Surabaya, Solo, Yogyakarta, Malang, Semarang and Bandung, plus airstrips in Cilacap and Madiun, were all forced to close after the 1,731-metre Mount Kelud started erupting on Thursday night, sending plumes of ash, rocks and gas 3km into the atmosphere. Surabaya’s Juanda International Airport is the second busiest in Indonesia, while Yogyakarta and Semarang are both in the top 10.
Services at Malang and Bandung resumed on Friday night, while flights gradually started operating at the remaining airports on Saturday. An airport spokesperson at Juanda International explained the difficulties being experienced: “It has continued to rain ash while we have been trying to clear it, and the ash is quickly turning into thick mud, which makes it even harder to clear the areas,” airport spokesperson Faisal Indra Kusuma told the Jakarta Post on Saturday.
In total, 332 flights were cancelled at Surabaya on Friday, 28 at Solo, 110 at Yogyakarta, 76 at Semarang, 16 at Malang, and 24 at Bandung.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said yesterday that Mount Kelud’s volcanic activity is “declining”, although it remains on high alert, with a 10km exclusion zone still in force around the crater.
Antara reports said that molten lava flow would be “seen clearly” from Blitar, East Java, around 15-20km from the volcano. Up to 76,000 people have been evacuated from villages around the volcano, while tens of thousands more fled the area of their own accord after the eruption started. And while people have started returning to their homes, they face a major clean-up operation, with some villages reported to be engulfed by up to 20cm of ash.
A total of seven people are now known to have been killed by the eruption of Mount Kelud, with causes of death including respiratory problems and building collapses.
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