Indonesia suspends airport operations as Mount Anak Krakatau erupts

Indonesia has suspended flights at its main international airport outside Jakarta, after volcanic ash from the erupting Mount Anak Krakatau spread over the capital.

Soekarno-Hatta international airport, more than 150km (93 miles) from the volcano, said on Sunday it had halted operations until 5:30pm local time (10:30 GMT), stranding hundreds of passengers.

The suspension has affected 301 flights, including 58 international services, airport operator Angkasa Pura said in a statement on Sunday. Singapore Airlines said it had cancelled flights to and from Jakarta for the rest of the day.

Operations were suspended at a total of six airports, including the Husein Sastranegara airport in Bandung and Radin Inten II airport near Bandar Lampung on Sumatra, the country’s Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said.

Several airports in cities, including Semarang and Surabaya, have been prepared as “alternatives for landing”, the minister added.

Irritation from the ash led several schools and some fishermen to cancel planned outings and activities, local media reported.

Anak Krakatau, which began erupting late on Friday, produced a fountain of lava and booming sounds that could be heard up to 700km (435 miles) away, according to the meteorological agency BMKG.

Ash was identified as high as 6,000 metres (20,000 feet) on the Java side of the volcano, and a plume of up to 15,000 metres (50,000 ft) on the Sumatra side and in some parts of Banten province in Java, BMKG posted on its website.

Two new eruptions were recorded on Sunday, BMKG said.

Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, BNPB, said that there was no imminent tsunami risk from the eruption, and announced on Sunday that it would take measures, such as cloud-seeding, to encourage rain to wash away the ash.

“If it rains heavily enough, the volcanic ash that has been disrupting our daily lives since yesterday and continuing today will be washed away quickly,” BNPB chief Suharyanto told a news conference.

Anak Krakatau emerged from the sea in the 1920s in the caldera left by the catastrophic 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, one of the deadliest volcanic events in recorded history.

The volcano has erupted periodically in the decades since, including a 2018 eruption that triggered a partial collapse of its crater and a tsunami that killed more than 400 people along the coasts of Java and Sumatra.

Volcanic ash poses a serious hazard to aircraft, capable of damaging jet engines and reducing visibility.