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Thick haze disrupts flights in Riau and Bengkulu
Dense haze blanketing Riau, caused by haze forest and peatland fires from rampant slash-and-burn techniques for land clearance, forced authorities to suspend flights at Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport in Pekanbaru on Wednesday as the air-pollution situation deteriorated
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D
ense haze blanketing Riau, caused by haze forest and peatland fires from rampant slash-and-burn techniques for land clearance, forced authorities to suspend flights at Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport in Pekanbaru on Wednesday as the air-pollution situation deteriorated.
"From morning till noon not a single airplane attempted to land," Sultan Syarif Kasim airport duty manager Hasnan said as quoted by Antara news agency.
Despite the disruption, however, the airport remained open and the authorities would order closures if the facilities were severely affected, he said.
He explained that visibility at around 9:30 a.m. was only 300 meters, far below the minimum requirement of 1,000 meters. These conditions continued until noon, when the visibility increased to 600 meters.
Haze has disrupted flight activities in Riau for a month causing delays, diversions and cancellations of flights. In normal conditions Sultan Syarif Kasim airport accommodates around 80 flights per day, each carrying 100 to 150 passengers.
The haze problem not only disrupted flights to Pekanbaru, but also to Fatmawati Soekarno Airport in Bengkulu on Wednesday.
'Two flights [scheduled to arrive in Bengkulu] were diverted to Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport in Palembang [South Sumatra] due to the haze,' said Bengkulu Transportation Agency chief Eko Agusrianto.
Eko explained that it was impossible for the flights to land as visibility was only around 200 meters in Bengkulu. (atw)
