JAKARTA: At least seven international flights from Indonesia’s resort island Bali have been cancelled, an airport official said Friday (Mar 21), after a volcano in the archipelago nation’s east erupted, shooting dark ash 8km into the sky.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703m twin-peaked volcano on the tourist island of Flores, erupted for 11 minutes and nine seconds late Thursday, authorities said, raising the volcano’s alert status to the highest level.
As of 9.45am local time Friday, “seven international flights had been cancelled, six of them are Jetstar flights bound to Australia and one Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur”, Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport spokesman, Andadina Dyah, said in a statement.
Several other flights – both domestic and international, including to Thailand, Singapore and Australia – have been delayed, it said.
The local airport in Maumere, on Flores, the closest to the volcano, has not been affected by the ash, according to the transportation ministry.
“The ash column was observed grey to black with thick intensity,” Indonesia’s volcanology agency said in a statement about the eruption, which began at around 11pm on Thursday.
Source: CNA
