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.