Indonesia: Thick Haze Paralyzes Jambi Airport

Jakarta Globe 24 Sep 12;

Jambi. Thick smoke from ground and forest fires have severely curtailed visibility and forced the closure of the Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin airport in Jambi city on Monday, an airport executive said.

The airport was closed for landing as visibility was down to 500 to 1,000 meters. The day's first scheduled flight at 6:00 a.m. had to be delayed by about 30 minutes.

The first flight scheduled to land at the airport, a Lion Air flight from Jakarta that should have landed at 7:30 a.m., was not able to do so and was diverted to the airport in Palembang.

Alzog Pendra, the operations manager of the Jambi airport, said they have warned aircraft against forcing to land if visibility was not permitting.

The thick haze began to disrupt the flight schedule at the Jambi airport on Sunday, Alzog said.

On Sunday, the same first flight from Jakarta operated by Lion air also failed to land because of the low visibility and was diverted to Palembang in neighboring South Sumatra. But similar low visibility due to haze in Palembang' Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin airport forced the plane to return to Jakarta instead.

A Garuda flight from Jakarta that had been due to arrive on Sunday morning only managed to land in Jambi at 1 p.m. after visibility improved.

An air pollution control index showed that in Jambi city, the air was entering the level of serious pollution, with smoke and ash at 90 particles per million over the past three days.

Bambang Priyanto, the deputy mayor of Jambi, said he has asked the city's health office to begin distributing free masks to the public because of the worsening air quality there.

"We have prepared some 70,000 masks in anticipation of the smoke," he said. The city, Bambang added, was also currently considering whether to temporarily close down schools, especially for kindergarten and primary schools.

Suara Pembaruan