VIDEO: Tourists stranded as Bali volcano spews ash into atmostphere

Tourists stranded as Bali volcano spews ash into atmostphere

More than 2000 tourists were stranded at Bali’s international airport at the weekend after the ­island’s Mt Agung volcano erupted on Saturday evening and again yesterday, forcing international airlines to cancel or detour flights.

A boy takes pictures as Bali volcano Mt Agung erupts. Picture: AFP

The volcanic eruptions, which began at 5.30pm (local time) on Saturday, sent plumes of ash and steam more than 3000m into the atmosphere and onto villages within the 7.5km evacuation zone enforced by authorities after a smaller eruption on Tuesday.

The ash cloud prompted aviation authorities to issue a red alert notice for Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport yesterday morning, and to close Lombok’s Bandana International Airport after southeasterly winds pushed the ash cloud towards the neighbouring island.

Police and soldiers were also distributing masks to residents in areas near the volcano.

While most domestic flights continued as scheduled, Jetstar cancelled nine international flights on Saturday evening.

A Jetstar spokesman said last night its senior pilots had assessed the conditions and found that it was safe to fly in to Bali. The budget airline will be running an additional Boeing 787 service today to help transport passengers whose flights were cancelled, from Sydney to Bali. Qantas flights will also run today as scheduled.

However, Virgin cancelled all flights to Bali yesterday afternoon as a precautionary measure after the Agung Volcano Observatory updated its aviation colour code from orange to red.

“Due to the significant volcanic ash and weather conditions, we made the decision to cancel the rest of Sunday’s flights to Bali,” a Virgin spokeswoman said. “As it gets darker it gets harder to see where the ash is going, so we cancelled the flights and will reassess in the morning.”

Bambang Hargiyono, head of Indonesia’s Meteorological and Climate Agency, warned that Bali airport could yet be forced to close should the wind change direction.

“If the volcanic ash is ­approaching the airport we will close it immediately. There is no choice. We won’t take any risks,” he said.

Sydneysider Shehdeen ­Farooq, 39, his wife Sandra, and three-year-old son, mother and stepfather were among those stranded at the weekend.

The extended family flew into Bali several days before the first eruption for a week-long 70th birthday celebration, booked well before long-dormant Mt Agung began showing signs of activity.

Emmi Payten, Rosie Buman, Tilly Paterson, and Emily Nicholson return to Sydney Airport. Picture: Troy Snook

But the group’s 10.30pm Saturday return flight to Sydney was cancelled just as they were issued their boarding passes.

“Suddenly the (check-in) staff went into a huddle and we thought initially it might be a pay dispute,” Mr Farooq said. “About 25 minutes later they said the flight was cancelled because of the volcano and they didn’t know when flights would resume.”

The family complied with a Jetstar directive not to return to the airport until they had received an email instructing them on their rescheduled flight, only to find that by doing so they had missed out on all available direct flights back to Sydney yesterday.

They were eventually placed on a late-afternoon flight to Melbourne with an overnight layover before connecting to Sydney.

About 25,000 people deserted villages around the volcano, which began showing signs of activity in September, though many returned home earlier this month after the volcano.

The last time Mt Agung ­erupted, in 1963, almost 1600 people died and 220,000 had to be evacuated.

Government vulcanologist Gene Suantika urged people to remain calm.

“We will continue to see eruptions like this on similar scales but we cannot predict when Mt Agung will really erupt,” he said.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/tourists-stranded-as-bali-volcano-spews-ash-into-atmostphere/news-story/263a719ceccae1cce04731eca953cd2a

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