Palembang Sees Flight Delays Due to Thickening Haze
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23 September 2019 07:11 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The intense forest fire-haze shrouding the City of Palembang for the past three weeks has caused 18 delayed flights at the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Palembang Airport, with one additional flight being diverted.
Airport Executive General Manager, Fahroji, says the sudden thickening haze one time on Sunday caused the visibility at the airport’s runway to drop to 200-meters.
“As of 05:00 Indonesia Western Times (WIB) the visibility remained at 800-meters which is considered safe. But then at 06:00, the visibility dropped to 200-meters and came back to normal at 08:00 WIB with visibility improving to 2,500 meters,” said Fahroji on Sunday, September 22.
He explained that the 18 flight schedules comprised of seven arrivals and eleven departures. One flight had to divert to an emergency landing in Palembang after failing to land among Jambi’s thick-haze.
Head of the airport’s Observatory and Meteorology Station Bambang Beny Setiaji explained that the haze covering the City of Palembang originates from the land and forest fires in the region’s eastern and southern area.
ANTARA
