JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau volcano erupted early Sunday, causing the cancellation of all flights at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and disrupting other domestic airports as volcanic ash moved across parts of western Indonesia. The Indonesian Geological Agency said the volcanic island located in the Sunda Strait between the main islands of Java and Sumatra had shown signs of activity since Friday before erupting for 30 seconds at 3:53 a.m. on Sunday. CCTV 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 (2 miles) from the active crater. Volcanic ash spread across parts of Jakarta and Lampung province on the southern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation said. AirNav Indonesia closed the airspace around Soekarno-Hatta and Halim Perdanakusuma airports in Jakarta, as well as four other airports, including Lampung’s Radin Inten II airport, due to volcanic ash. Thousands of passengers affectedBy mid-afternoon, the closure had affected 516 flight movements, of which 202 at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport alone affected some 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 meteorological agency. “Safety remains our top priority in every operational decision,” Lukman F. Laisa, director general of civil aviation at the Ministry of Transportation, said in a statement. It warned that flight schedules could face cascading disruptions affecting aircraft turnover, 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 in Medan. The volcano remains active Indonesia’s volcanology agency and the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Center identified two ash clouds using satellite images. One plume rose to 6,100 meters (20,000 ft) and headed northeast over Jakarta, Banten, West Java and nearby waters. A second cloud reached 15,200 meters (50,000 feet) 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, director of the Indonesian Geological Agency, said activity at Anak Krakatau has intensified since July, with Sunday’s eruption being the strongest during the current period of unrest. Subscribe to Morning Wire: Our flagship newsletter breaks down the day’s biggest headlines. The repeated eruptions indicate a continued supply of magma and volcanic gases beneath the volcano, he said, although officials cannot predict whether a larger eruption will occur. “We continue to evaluate the development of the volcano based on all monitoring data, not just the number of eruptions or the height of the ash plume,” Saria said in a video briefing. He said the main dangers include volcanic ash, high concentrations of gas and the ejection of hot rocks and other materials around the crater area. Anak Krakatau, meaning “son of Krakatau,” is a descendant of the famous Krakatau, whose monumental 1883 eruption triggered a period of global cooling. The eruption triggered a tsunami in 2018 that killed at least 430 people in Sumatra and Java. Researchers believe the volcanic activity triggered an underwater landslide and caused a large part of the southwestern slope of Anak Krakatau 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.___Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan and Dita Alangkara in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
