Indonesia closes island airport after volcano erupts

Published December 20, 2014
TERNATE (Indonesia): Mount Gamalama spews ash into the air during an eruption on Friday.—AFP
TERNATE (Indonesia): Mount Gamalama spews ash into the air during an eruption on Friday.—AFP

JAKARTA: Indonesia temporarily closed a domestic airport on Friday after a volcano in the country’s east erupted, spewing plumes of ash hundreds of metres into the air, officials said.

The volcano, Mount Gamalama — which forms the entire island of Ternate in North Maluku province — erupted late Thursday and was still coughing up ash the following day.

While no one in the area has yet been told to evacuate, an airport in Ternate town at the mountain’s foot was forced to close, the transport ministry said.

“We closed the Sultan Baabulah airport this morning as the volcanic ash may pose a risk to planes,” said ministry spokesman J.A. Barata, adding that the airfield was covered with thick ash.

The airport could reopen Saturday if there are no further eruptions, Barata said.

Darno Lamane, an official at the volcano monitoring post, said the 1,715-metre volcano continued to spew ash in plumes of up to 600 metres on Friday.

A local disaster management agency official said that 11 hikers who had been at the volcano when it erupted managed to escape, but some were injured as they clambered down.

“There were 11 hikers injured while running down the slope during the eruption. Three of them are being hospitalised for broken bones,” Mansur Mahli said.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity. The archipelago nation is home to 129 active volcanoes, including 21 on Java.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2014

Opinion

Editorial

Reserved seats
Updated 15 May, 2024

Reserved seats

The ECP's decisions and actions clearly need to be reviewed in light of the country’s laws.
Secretive state
15 May, 2024

Secretive state

THERE is a fresh push by the state to stamp out all criticism by using the alibi of protecting national interests....
Plague of rape
15 May, 2024

Plague of rape

FLAWED narratives about women — from being weak and vulnerable to provocative and culpable — have led to...
Privatisation divide
Updated 14 May, 2024

Privatisation divide

How this disagreement within the government will sit with the IMF is anybody’s guess.
AJK protests
14 May, 2024

AJK protests

SINCE last week, Azad Jammu & Kashmir has been roiled by protests, fuelled principally by a disconnect between...
Guns and guards
14 May, 2024

Guns and guards

THERE are some flawed aspects to our society that we must start to fix at the grassroots level. One of these is the...