Indonesia’s main international airport was forced to suspend operations on Sunday after an eruption from the Anak Krakatoa volcano more than 150 kilometers away sent ash into the sky. The volcano erupted on Saturday, sending out a fountain of lava and loud sounds that could be heard hundreds of kilometers away. Two additional eruptions were recorded on Sunday, according to the country’s volcanology agency.
Ash from the volcano reached the airspace around Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, leading officials to initially stop flights from 1:30 am until 5:30 am, according to manilastandard.net. The suspension was extended three times, with the final stoppage ending at 5:30 pm due to increased eruptive activity. Six airports across Indonesia were affected, including the Hussein Sastranegara airport in Bandung and Radin Inten II airport near Bandar Lampung on Sumatra.
The country’s Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said several cities, including Semarang and Surabaya, were preparing as alternative landing sites. Passengers were left scrambling to find new flights, with some forced to reschedule their travel plans. A businesswoman who had to delay her trip told reporters that no one was angry, as the disruption was due to a natural event.
A Danone executive on a business trip to Lombok said he had no choice but to stay in the region after multiple flights were canceled. He added that he had tried to book another flight on Citilink, but it too was canceled. More than twenty-two thousand passengers were impacted by the suspension, with two hundred and nine flights affected, especially those traveling to and from Singapore.
Other international routes that were disrupted included flights to Doha, Sydney, and Kuala Lumpur. At least sixteen domestic flights to and from Bali were also canceled. Anak Krakatoa is located in a strait between Java and Sumatra islands.
Ships passing through the area were warned to be cautious due to possible navigation risks from volcanic activity. Local port authorities said vessels must not approach within a three-kilometer radius of the volcano. The volcano has been active since it emerged at the beginning of the last century in the caldera that formed after the 1883 eruption of Mount Krakatoa, which killed an estimated thirty-five thousand people.
Scientists said it is not possible to predict exactly when or how the next eruption will happen. They warned that approaching the volcano could be dangerous due to materials ejected from the volcano. Recent eruptions do not currently have the potential to trigger a tsunami, according to officials.
A tsunami in 2018 caused by parts of Anak Krakatoa collapsing killed four hundred and twenty-nine people. Indonesia sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone known for frequent volcanic and seismic activity. The eruption also caused disruptions to daily life in areas around Java, including schools and fishing activities, according to a report from Devdiscourse.
Some residents reported irritation from ash exposure, and local media noted the impact on public health, Devdiscourse reported. The government is working to manage the situation with weather modification efforts to reduce ash accumulation. Citizens are being advised to stay indoors when necessary and monitor updates from local authorities.
Airport operator Angkasa Pura reported that a total of three hundred and one flights were affected, including fifty-eight international ones. Singapore Airlines among the carriers that canceled flights to and from Jakarta. The meteorological agency BMKG said ash clouds reached heights of up to fifty thousand feet in some parts of Java.
IMAGE: Anak Krakatoa as seen from space by the ESA’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on 17th April 2020.
“Thanks to the satellite’s short wave infrared channels we can easily spot the ongoing activity in the crater, visible in bright red.”
Taken from the @esa_earth Instagram account. Credits there given as: “contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO”. Photo: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo