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View all search resultsWorsening wildfire haze disrupts flights across Sumatra
Flights were delayed, rescheduled, diverted or forced to return to their departure airports as thickening haze pushed visibility below safe levels.
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A drone view shows the Ampera Bridge shrouded in haze from forest fires on Sept. 6 in Palembang, South Sumatra. (Reuters/Abriansyah Liberto)
W
orsening haze from forest and land fires forced airlines to delay and divert multiple flights across Sumatra in the past few days as visibility plummeted and air quality hit hazardous levels.
Five flights at Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport in Palembang were delayed on Thursday morning because of poor visibility caused by the haze, the airport's general manager, Ahmad Syaugi Sahab, said.
The affected flights included three departures to Jakarta and Pangkalpinang in the Bangka Belitung Islands, and two arrivals from Yogyakarta and Jakarta.
"Visibility at the airport fell below the minimum operational threshold of 600 meters this morning because of the haze, so we had to delay several departures and arrivals to ensure the safety of passengers and flight crews," Ahmad said, according to Indonesian news outlet Detik.com.
The disruption came just days after haze affected 18 flights at the airport on Oct. 3, when visibility also fell below the minimum level required for flight operations.
In Pekanbaru, Riau province, two flights from Jakarta were unable to land at Sultan Syarif Kasim airport on Wednesday morning after visibility fell to as low as 600 meters. A Lion Air flight returned to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, while a Citilink flight from Jakarta was diverted to Hang Nadim Airport in Batam, Riau Islands.
“The Lion Air flight returned to its departure airport at 6:44 a.m. local time because weather conditions and visibility were below the minimum required for a safe landing, the Citilink flight was diverted at 8:04 a.m. after circling over Pekanbaru while waiting for conditions to improve,” said airport executive general manager, Achmad on Wednesday.
