Volcano leads to airport closures and flight cancellations
A volcano has erupted on the Indonesian island of Java forcing the closure of three airports and flight cancellations.
The ash cloud from Mount Kelud, 140 km south of Indonesia’s second biggest city Surabaya, was seen as far as 9km to the west and forced the shutdown of airports at Surabaya and the cities of Yogyakarta and Solo.
A Jetstar flight from Perth to Jakarta earlier this morning was filled with smoke after the plane flew into Indonesia’s volcanic ash cloud, a passenger said.
Virgin Australia has cancelled all flights to Bali, Phuket, Christmas Island and Cocos Island.
At least 10 flights have been cancelled, including flights from Denpasar to Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. Four inbound flights from Bali to Australia have been grounded, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
An additional two flights between Perth and Phuket were also cancelled.
Virgin said its meteorologists were monitoring the situation, in consultation with the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Darwin, and the airline would recommence normal operations as soon as the volcanic ash cloud safely allowed it.
Two Qantas flights between Sydney and Jakarta have been delayed until Saturday, while flight paths from Australia to Singapore have been altered, said a Qantas spokeswoman.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman said the volcano was no longer erupting.
He told Reuters: "We don’t have data yet on how many people have been evacuated in total. We can say 200,000 people were affected. We received reports of deaths but we have not verified them yet."
At least 11 people were killed earlier this month in the north of the island of Sumatra when Mount Sinabung erupted.
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