Some 270,000 passengers have been left stranded across Indonesia after a volcanic eruption grounded more than 2,000 flights and forced airports to suspend operations for a second day. Anak Krakatau, located 150km (90mi) from Jakarta, began erupting late on Friday, producing lava fountains and sending volcanic ash into the capital and the Lampung province. It stayed seismically active throughout the weekend.
Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International and three other airports have extended closures till 18:00 local time on Monday after volcanic ash was detected in airspaces near them. Schools in the region moved classes online while some shipping operations were also disrupted. Snaking queues formed at the departure halls in Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Monday as stranded passengers sought refunds and tried to get updates on when they would be able to fly.
Finna, who was supposed to fly home to Jakarta from Malang, a city in East Java, on Sunday morning, described the frezny at the airport as flights got repeatedly rescheduled. "It was very crowded because passengers from the morning flights had piled up, while those scheduled for later departures still didn't know what would happen," the 46-year-old told BBC Indonesian. "We were all glued to the flight information screens." Not wanting to deal with the uncertainty, Finna eventually spent the night on two intercity trains before arriving in Jakarta at 03:00 on Monday.
"Everyone seems to be racking their brains [figuring alternative transportation options]", said Jo Shaw, who was visiting Indonesia with members of her conservation charity Save the Rhino International. Shaw's team had axed their plans to camp out at Java's Ujung Kulon National Park after authorities raised its alert level for the Anak Krakatau volcano. "Being stranded in an airport hotel is a relatively minor inconvenience to be resolved in a few days hopefully," Shaw said, adding that she was more concerned about the teams working on the ground with the rhinos under such environmental conditions.
A newly wed Malaysian couple who had just spent a week in Bali said they were told that the next flight back to Kuala Lumpur wouldn't be until 11 September. "What are we going to do here for another five days? We only prepared enough money for our honeymoon and [were supposed] to go home yesterday," Amir Hamzah told Malaysia's national news agency Bernama.
"We thought we would just sleep at the airport for a few hours and then take the morning flight home [on Monday]. We never thought we would end up being stuck here for days," the 29-year-old said. On Monday, Indonesia's Geological Agency warned that "the probability of further eruptions in the coming periods remains high".
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