Flights disrupted due to haze
Flights disrupted due to haze
Puji Santoso, Pekanbaru
A number of flights were diverted or delayed on Tuesday as thick
haze from forest and farmland fires covered Pekanbaru city in
Riau province and parts of the Malaysian peninsula.
Officials said at least eight planes were unable to land at
Pekanbaru's Sultan Syarif Kasim Airport, while another flight
could not take off due to poor visibility.
Visibility was only 300 meters at around 6 a.m. and increased
to 400 meters two hours later, said Sutrisno, head of airport
operator PT Angkasa Pura II.
However, he said, planes started to take off and land at
around 9 a.m. after visibility continued to improve.
Sutrisno said the disrupted flights included those of Merpati,
Jatayu, Riau Airlines (RAL), Garuda, Mandala and Star Air.
"Even a Star Air flight that left Jakarta for Pekanbaru was
forced to land in Medan before continuing to Pekanbaru hours
later," he added.
He said an aircraft of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) had
to fly around over Pekanbaru airport, waiting for directions to
land.
According to him, the minimal visibility needed for flights to
land or take off is 2,000 meters.
The delayed and diverted flights forced hundreds of passengers
to wait for hours at the airport.
Earlier on Monday, visibility improved after the thick haze
cleared slightly.
Tuesday's haze also forced motorists to switch on their fog
lights and lower their speed, while wearing masks and glasses.
A number of vendors took advantage of the situation by selling
masks on several main streets like Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Tuanku
Tambusai.
"The smoke is already harmful. It makes my eyes sting and
water," Syafrial, an employee at a private firm, told The Jakarta
Post on Jl. Sudirman.
By noon, Pekanbaru city's skies looked bright again as the
haze cleared.
Smoke from forest fires was reported to have drifted across to
neighboring Malaysia, shrouding several cities in an unhealthy
haze on Tuesday.
"Some people are falling sick due to the haze," Leong Fong Yi,
a college administrator in the northern Malaysian city of Penang,
told AP. "I'm really praying hard for heavy rain."
Visibility at Kuala Lumpur International Airport was down to
three kilometers, from the normal 10 kilometers, but airport
spokeswoman Wan Hasmi was quoted as saying flights were not yet
affected.
There were no clear results yet on Malaysia's air quality, but
preliminary tests showed that Kuala Lumpur, Penang and other
cities had poor air quality, said Asmah Ibrahim, director of the
environment department's air division.
Officials blamed the smog on more than 300 "hot spots"
detected in Riau and other parts of Sumatra island, separated
from peninsular Malaysia by the narrow Malacca Strait.
The fires were set by large forest and plantation concession-
holders as well as by small farmers, they said.
Annoyed by the haze, Deputy Riau Governor Wan Abubakar said
legal action would immediately be taken on those starting the
fires.
"It seems that they take the regulations lightly. As a result,
the smoke is everywhere and has disrupted flights. It creates
difficulties for all of us," he said.
Wan said his administration would gather all regency and
municipal heads and other relevant authorities to decide on
sanctions to be imposed on rogue forest concessionaires blamed
for the smog.
"Last year, we brought 10 forestry and plantation companies to
court for starting fires to clear land. They are still being
dealt with by prosecutors," he added.
Haze is an annual dry-season phenomena in parts of Indonesia,
despite laws banning the use of fire to clear land for
cultivation. It spread to much of Southeast Asia in 1997. The
ecological disaster sparked a diplomatic row, with economic
losses estimated at around US$9.3 billion, and prompted a 2002
agreement between neighboring countries to fight pollution from
forest fires.