Indonesia was forced to cancel flights at Jakarta International Airport and service at other domestic airports were also disrupted Sunday when Anak Krakatau volcano erupted, spreading ash across western parts of the country.
Indonesia’s Geological Agency said the volcanic island located in Indonesia’s Sunda Strait between the main Java and Sumatra islands had showed signs of activity since Friday before erupting for 30 seconds at 3:53 a.m. Sunday. Closed-circuit camera footage showed lava flares from the volcano.
No casualties were reported and no evacuation order was issued. The nearest settlement is more than 16 kilometers (10 miles) away, but authorities warned residents and visitors to stay at least 3 kilometers from the active crater.
Volcanic ash spread across parts of Jakarta and Lampung province on Sumatra’s southern tip, Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation said.
AirNav Indonesia closed airspace around Soekarno-Hatta and Halim Perdanakusuma airports in Jakarta, as well as four other airports, including Radin Inten II Airport in Lampung, because of volcanic ash.
By mid-afternoon, the closure had affected 516 flight movements, with 202 in Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport alone that affected about 22,800 passengers, on Sunday. The airport was ordered closed until at least 5:30 p.m.
Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said it was closely monitoring the eruption's impact on air travel and coordinating with airlines, airport operators, air navigation services and the meteorology agency.
"Safety remains our top priority in every operational decision,” Lukman F. Laisa, Ministry of Transportation director general of civil aviation, said in a statement.
He warned flight schedules could face cascading disruptions affecting aircraft rotations, fleet availability and terminal capacity as airlines work to restore operations.
The eruption also disrupted services at Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport and at Medan.
Indonesia’s volcanology agency and the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre identified two ash clouds using satellite imagery. One plume rose to 6,100 meters (20,000 feet) and drifted northeast over Jakarta, Banten, West Java and nearby waters.
A second cloud reached 15,200 meters and spread over parts of Banten, Lampung and Bengkulu provinces, the southern Sunda Strait and sections of the Indian Ocean west of Sumatra.
Lana Saria, head of Indonesia’s Geological Agency, said activity at Anak Krakatau has intensified since July, with Sunday’s eruption the strongest during the current period of unrest.
The repeated eruptions indicate a continued supply of magma and volcanic gases beneath the volcano, she said, though officials cannot predict whether a larger eruption will occur.
"We continue to evaluate the volcano’s development based on all monitoring data, not solely on the number of eruptions or the height of the ash column,” Saria said in a video briefing.
She said the main hazards include volcanic ash, high concentrations of gas and the ejection of hot rocks and other material around the crater area.
Anak Krakatau, which means "child of Krakatau," is the offspring of the famous Krakatau, whose monumental 1883 eruption triggered a period of global cooling.
The eruption caused a tsunami in 2018 that killed at least 430 people in Sumatra and Java. Researchers believe volcanic activity triggered an underwater landslide and caused a large chunk of Anak Krakatau’s southwest slope to collapse and displace a large volume of water.
Scientists said Anak Krakatau island was only about a quarter of its original size after that eruption.
