English
Anak Krakatau volcano erupted in the early hours of Sunday, forcing the closure of Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and disrupting air travel across western Indonesia. The eruption stranded an estimated 150,000 passengers and cancelled or delayed hundreds of flights, sending volcanic ash drifting over major population centres and surrounding waters.
Eruption Triggers Widespread Airport Closures
Indonesia’s Geological Agency reported that Anak Krakatau, situated in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, had shown signs of increased activity since Friday. The volcano erupted at 3:53 a.m. Sunday, with the eruption lasting approximately 30 seconds. Closed-circuit camera footage captured lava flares rising from the crater.
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AirNav Indonesia responded by closing airspace around Soekarno-Hatta and Halim Perdanakusuma airports in Jakarta, along with six additional airports. These included Radin Inten II Airport in Lampung province, located on Sumatra’s southern tip, where ash fall also caused disruption. Services at Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport and at Medan were similarly affected.
By Sunday evening, the closures had disrupted 467 flight movements at Soekarno-Hatta alone. Airport authorities extended the closure order until at least 9:30 p.m. local time as conditions remained hazardous.
Thousands of Passengers Left Stranded
The sudden halt in air operations left passengers across multiple airports without clear guidance. Diego Urdiales, a Spanish tourist scheduled to fly home to Madrid, described the situation as deeply frustrating. “It’s of course an inconvenience,” he said. “I was supposed to get input from the airline, but so far no news.”
Other travellers took a more resigned approach. Indonesian passenger Michele Gouw acknowledged there was little anyone could do. “It’s a natural disaster, it’s a force majeure, so what can we do?” she said. “We just have to accept it and wait for the airline and airport directions.”
Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said it was actively monitoring the eruption’s impact and coordinating with airlines, airport operators, air navigation services and the national meteorology agency. Lukman F. Laisa, the Ministry of Transportation’s director general of civil aviation, stated in an official release that safety remained the top priority in every operational decision. He also warned that disruptions could cascade through aircraft rotations, fleet availability and terminal capacity as airlines worked to restore normal services.
Ash Clouds Reach Tens of Thousands of Feet
Indonesia’s volcanology agency and the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre used satellite imagery to track two distinct ash clouds from the eruption. One plume climbed to 20,000 feet (6,100 metres) and drifted northeast over Jakarta, Banten, West Java and surrounding waters. A second, far larger cloud reached 50,000 feet (15,200 metres), spreading across parts of Banten, Lampung and Bengkulu provinces, the southern Sunda Strait and sections of the Indian Ocean west of Sumatra.
Authorities confirmed that volcanic ash had settled over parts of Jakarta and Lampung province. No casualties were reported, and officials issued no evacuation orders. The nearest inhabited settlement sits more than 16 kilometres from the volcano, though authorities warned residents and visitors to remain at least three kilometres from the active crater.
Volcano’s Activity Has Intensified Since July
Lana Saria, head of Indonesia’s Geological Agency, said Anak Krakatau’s activity had been intensifying since July, with Sunday’s eruption marking the strongest event during the current period of unrest. She attributed the ongoing activity to a continued supply of magma and volcanic gases beneath the surface, though she cautioned that officials cannot predict whether a larger eruption will follow.
“We continue to evaluate the volcano’s development based on all monitoring data, not solely on the number of eruptions or the height of the ash column,” Saria said during a video briefing. She identified the primary hazards as volcanic ash, high concentrations of gas and the ejection of hot rocks and other material near the crater.
Anak Krakatau, whose name translates to “child of Krakatau,” rose from the remnants of the original Krakatau volcano. That volcano’s catastrophic 1883 eruption triggered a period of global cooling. In 2018, Anak Krakatau itself generated a deadly tsunami that killed at least 430 people across Sumatra and Java. Researchers determined that volcanic activity caused an underwater landslide, collapsing a large section of the volcano’s southwest slope and displacing a massive volume of water. Scientists noted that the island was left at roughly a quarter of its original size following that disaster.
