Volcano disrupts international flights
Source: Agencies |
November 8, 2010, Monday
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INDONESIA'S most volatile volcano sparked transportation chaos yesterday, with several international airlines canceling flights to the capital and neighboring Malaysia airlifting out hundreds of its citizens.
Panicked residents who live near the base of Mount Merapi - which has claimed 138 lives in two weeks - crammed into trains and buses to seek temporary refuge with family and friends elsewhere.
The notoriously unpredictable volcano unleashed its most powerful eruption in a century on Friday, sending hot clouds of gas, rocks and debris avalanching down its slopes at highway speeds, torching houses and trees and leaving a trail of charred corpses in its path.
A mass burial for some of the 90 who died in that blast was planned.
Merapi, meanwhile, showed no signs of tiring, sending out thunderous claps as it shot ash up to 6 kilometers into the air, dusting windshields hundreds of kilometers away.
Just days before US President Barack Obama's planned trip to Indonesia, several international airlines canceled flights to Jakarta, 450 kilometers to the west, due to the risks posed by volcanic ash.
It can clog engines and harm other parts of the aircraft.
Paul Belmont, a US Embassy spokesman, said there was no talk yet of changing Obama's schedule.
"But certainly, if the situation evolves into something like what we saw in Europe not long ago (when the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul closed airports for a week) it's something we'd have to take seriously," he said.
Almost all international flights in and out of Jakarta were canceled on Saturday. Some airlines slowly started resuming operations yesterday. Lufthansa, EVA Air, Philippine Air and others were still on the ground.
The Royal Malaysian Air Force, meanwhile, was sending three C-130 transport planes to the city of Solo, 30 kilometers from the volcano, to pick up 664 citizens, many of them university students.
The first batch returned home yesterday evening and the rest were scheduled to head out early today.
Merapi's latest round of eruptions began on October 26, followed by more than a dozen other powerful blasts and thousands of tremors. More than 200,000 people - many of whom live on the volcano's fertile slopes - have jammed into emergency shelters.
Panicked residents who live near the base of Mount Merapi - which has claimed 138 lives in two weeks - crammed into trains and buses to seek temporary refuge with family and friends elsewhere.
The notoriously unpredictable volcano unleashed its most powerful eruption in a century on Friday, sending hot clouds of gas, rocks and debris avalanching down its slopes at highway speeds, torching houses and trees and leaving a trail of charred corpses in its path.
A mass burial for some of the 90 who died in that blast was planned.
Merapi, meanwhile, showed no signs of tiring, sending out thunderous claps as it shot ash up to 6 kilometers into the air, dusting windshields hundreds of kilometers away.
Just days before US President Barack Obama's planned trip to Indonesia, several international airlines canceled flights to Jakarta, 450 kilometers to the west, due to the risks posed by volcanic ash.
It can clog engines and harm other parts of the aircraft.
Paul Belmont, a US Embassy spokesman, said there was no talk yet of changing Obama's schedule.
"But certainly, if the situation evolves into something like what we saw in Europe not long ago (when the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul closed airports for a week) it's something we'd have to take seriously," he said.
Almost all international flights in and out of Jakarta were canceled on Saturday. Some airlines slowly started resuming operations yesterday. Lufthansa, EVA Air, Philippine Air and others were still on the ground.
The Royal Malaysian Air Force, meanwhile, was sending three C-130 transport planes to the city of Solo, 30 kilometers from the volcano, to pick up 664 citizens, many of them university students.
The first batch returned home yesterday evening and the rest were scheduled to head out early today.
Merapi's latest round of eruptions began on October 26, followed by more than a dozen other powerful blasts and thousands of tremors. More than 200,000 people - many of whom live on the volcano's fertile slopes - have jammed into emergency shelters.
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