A resurgent Anak Krakatau volcano kept flights grounded across western Indonesia for a third day Monday, with more than 1,500 flights delayed or cancelled and upwards of 150,000 to 270,000 travelers stranded, depending on the tally, after a weekend of near-continuous eruptions sent ash plumes as high as 50,000 feet into the region's flight paths.
The volcanic island in the Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra, had shown signs of unrest since Friday before erupting continuously for roughly 25 hours beginning late that night, followed by additional bursts of activity on Sunday, according to Indonesia's Geological Agency. One ash plume climbed to roughly 20,000 feet and drifted northeast over Jakarta and Banten province; a second, taller plume reached an estimated 50,000 feet and spread west over Lampung, Bengkulu and the Indian Ocean.
Airports shut, then shut again
Eight airports across the region halted operations at points over the weekend, including Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport — Indonesia's busiest — along with fields in Lampung, Bali and Medan. By Monday morning, four airports remained closed until at least 6 p.m. local time, and airlines reported more than 240 additional flight cancellations or delays before noon, according to airport officials; some carriers diverted arriving flights to Semarang and Surabaya. One airport in South Sumatra managed to resume operations Monday morning after ash cleared.
"We understand that this situation affects passengers' travel plans," airport spokesman Yudhistiawan said. "Therefore, from the start of the temporary closure, we have focused on ensuring that passengers' needs continue to be met." Transportation officials have stressed that safety, not convenience, is driving the extended shutdowns, given the risk volcanic ash poses to jet engines.
Authorities have not ordered evacuations and reported no casualties; the nearest settlement lies more than 10 miles from the crater, and officials have told residents and boaters to stay at least two miles away from the active vent, with a three-kilometer exclusion zone in force. Jakarta schools shifted to online classes as a precaution against ash fall, and disaster agency chief Suharyanto said cloud-seeding efforts were underway in hopes that rain would help wash ash out of the atmosphere more quickly.
Anak Krakatau — "child of Krakatau" — emerged from the sea in 1927 on the site of the cataclysmic 1883 eruption that killed tens of thousands of people. Its most recent lethal episode came in December 2018, when a flank of the volcano collapsed into the sea and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 430 people in Sumatra and Java without warning. That history is part of why officials are treating the current unrest cautiously even though, so far, this eruption has produced disruption rather than casualties.
