Cengkareng toll road flood plays havoc with flights
Cengkareng toll road flood plays havoc with flights
JAKARTA (JP): Flooding swamped sections of Cengkareng toll
road in West Jakarta on Tuesday, leaving the route impassable to
small vehicles and causing delays in departures from Soekarno-
Hatta International Airport.
Heavy rain that drenched the city since Monday evening and
monsoon conditions in the Jakarta Bay are believed to have caused
the flooding at KM 26 and KM 27, with water levels reaching about
one meter on Tuesday morning.
As of Tuesday evening, the water level was 75 centimeters,
continuing to block the way for small vehicles. Only large
vehicles, such as trucks and buses, were able to reach the
airport.
"The airport authorities will provide buses to transport
airplane passengers since small cars cannot pass through the
road," Adityawarman, head of Tomang-Cawang toll road operator PT
Jasa Marga, said in an interview on ANteve private television
station.
The television station also reported that the authorities
prepared a water pump with a capacity to remove 1,500 liters of
water per second.
Flight departures were disrupted due to the difficulty of
airline crews in reaching the airport.
"So many airlines were forced to delay the departure of their
airplanes, since their crews and passengers were late in arriving
at the airport," an airport public relations official, Toto,
said.
He said most airlines delayed their flight departures by an
average of 30 minutes.
"People finally reached the airport through other entrance
gates -- the Kalideres and the Tangerang toll roads," he told The
Jakarta Post.
A member of staff at the VIP room of Garuda Indonesia, Nuning,
confirmed that delays were prevalent.
"We delayed the departure of our flights, including for
Makassar and Yogyakarta," she said.
Baban Kartiwan, station manager of Lufthansa, said the German
airline did not experience disruption of its lone flight
departure.
"Lufthansa did not delay its airplane departure, which left
for Bonn, Germany, on time at 8:10 p.m.," he told the Post on
Tuesday evening.
"There are two possibilities. Either our passengers already
knew of the flood on the toll road and they took other routes to
reach the airport, or the water level had already receded."
Baban acknowledged that Lufthansa's on-time departure was
unusual among the harried airlines.
"I heard from other airlines that there were many delays of
their departures due to the flooding on the Cengkareng toll
road," he said.
Stranded
Hundreds of cars were forced to park on the shoulder of the
road at KM 25 as they waited for the floodwater to recede.
An Australian, identified only as Sally, said she was on her
way to pick up a friend arriving at the airport when she realized
the road was impassable.
"It troubled me a lot as there was no information provided at
the toll road's entrance gate," she said.
Car drivers also complained of the poor public information
service at the toll road entrance gate.
"We only got information from Sonora radio station that the
area was inundated," Karpin, a driver, said.
He said he decided to leave home early so that he could pick
up his boss, who was scheduled to arrive from Surabaya at 4:30
p.m.
"But I've been stuck here stuck here since 1 p.m. and cannot
do anything as I don't have a cell phone to contact my boss."
A local woman, Susan, whose flight to Australia was scheduled
to leave at 5 p.m., was similarly upset by the lack of
information.
"No information was provided at the toll road's entrance
gate," she complained.
"I cannot ride on the Damri (state-owned bus company serving
routes to and from the airport) as all of them were full of
passengers."
She was unsure about the status of her flight.
"I don't know whether it will be delayed or leave on time,"
she said. (asa/leo)