Mount Anak Krakatau erupted late Friday, September 5, sending an ash column high enough to close eight airports across Indonesia and strand more than 270,000 travelers, according to the country’s Transport Ministry and disaster agency BNPB.
The volcano sits in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, about 150 kilometers from Jakarta. Indonesia’s meteorological agency BMKG recorded the ash plume reaching roughly 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) over Java and as high as 15,000 meters (50,000 feet) toward Sumatra and Banten province, where the eruption’s booming sounds carried an estimated 700 kilometers.
Which airports closed
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta’s main hub and one of Southeast Asia’s busiest, suspended operations Sunday morning after ash was detected in nearby airspace. Seven other airports followed over the weekend. Four, including Soekarno-Hatta, kept runways shut through Monday at 6 p.m. local time, while a smaller airport in South Sumatra reopened Monday morning.
The Transport Ministry counted 1,558 delayed or canceled flights across the affected airports, with more than 900 of those at Soekarno-Hatta alone. On Monday morning another 240 flights were disrupted, adding roughly 30,000 passengers to the tally. International routes to Singapore, Doha, Sydney and Kuala Lumpur took the heaviest hit, though domestic travel across Java and Sumatra also ground to a halt.
Safety measures near the volcano
Authorities set a three-kilometer exclusion zone around Anak Krakatau and told ships to steer clear of the surrounding strait, warning of reduced visibility for maritime traffic. Officials said they saw no immediate tsunami risk, a relief given the volcano’s history: a 2018 flank collapse at the same peak triggered a tsunami that killed more than 400 people along the Sunda Strait coastline.
Indonesia’s health ministry urged residents in ash-affected areas to stay indoors and wear masks, citing respiratory, eye and skin risks from airborne particles. BNPB chief Suharyanto said heavy rain could help clear settled ash from roads and rooftops faster than cleanup crews alone.
What happens next
BMKG flagged a high probability of further eruptions into Monday, and airlines were told to expect rolling delays rather than a single reopening. Airport staff at Soekarno-Hatta said they had set up rebooking counters and extended lounge access for stranded passengers, many of whom had already spent one or two nights sleeping in terminals.
Sources: CNN · Al Jazeera · RTE News
