Air New Zealand is interested in New York-based Air Company which makes sustainable fuel out of carbon and hydrogen. Video / Dean Purcell
Air New Zealand is back flying to and from Bali today after two flights were cancelled yesterday because of a forecast ash cloud from the erupting Mt Lewotobi Laki-Laki volcano in eastern Indonesia.
Kiwis, including NZME head of radio news and sport Scarlett Cvitanovich, were stranded after the morning outboundand evening inbound flights between Auckland and Bali were cancelled yesterday.
However, flight NZ290 left Auckland for Bali’s capital Denpasar at 12.10pm today, an hour behind schedule, according to the Auckland Airport website.
The airline was monitoring conditions in Indonesia closely, Air NZ chief operating officer Alex Marren said this morning.
“Due to limited availability, this process may take some time, and we’re doing everything we can to get everyone to their destination as soon as possible, including the option of rebooking customers on other airlines.”
Residents watch the eruption of Mt Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Tuesday. Photo / AFP
Cvitanovich was still on the tourist island of Flores this morning, where the volcano began erupting on Tuesday, sending a towering ash cloud 11km into the air, Indonesia’s volcanology agency said.
But she is 600km from the eruption, and conditions this morning remained “as calm and lovely as can be”, she said.
“If our flight hadn’t been cancelled, you wouldn’t have had a clue anything was wrong.”
As well as her international flight, her domestic flight from Flores to Denpasar was also cancelled yesterday.
She’s rebooked today on another domestic flight to Denpasar mid-afternoon (NZT), to make her new international flight home on Saturday.
The serene setting of Scarlett Cvitanovich's resort on Flores Island in Indonesia yesterday, as a volcano erupted 600km away, disrupting her domestic and international flights home. Photo / Scarlett Cvitanovich
“Hoping that [domestic flight] goes ahead”, she said, with a 12-hour boat journey alternative “apparently not the most pleasant of experiences”.
MFAT said yesterday that 432 New Zealanders were registered on the SafeTravel website as being in Indonesia, but it had not received any requests for assistance since the eruption.
Ash column grey, with thick intensity
Mt Lewotobi Laki-Laki spewed its colossal ash tower after officials raised the alert level to the highest of a four-tiered system, AFP reported on Tuesday.
The 1584m twin-peaked volcano on Flores erupted at 5.35pm local time (9.35pm NZT), the volcanology agency said.
“The height of the eruption column was observed at approximately 10,000 metres above the summit.
“The ash column was observed to be grey with thick intensity,” it said, after the alert level was raised.
Residents and tourists were warned to avoid carrying out any activities within at least 7km of the volcano’s crater, geology agency head Muhammad Wafid said.
But he warned of the possibility of hazardous lahar floods – a type of mud or debris flow of volcanic materials – if heavy rain occurred, particularly for communities near rivers.
He also urged residents to wear face masks to protect themselves from volcanic ash, AFP reported.
At least one village had to evacuate, National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Abdul Muhari said late on Tuesday.
Ash rain had also been reported in several villages outside the exclusion zone.
Muhari told residents around the volcano “to evacuate to safe locations” as tremors were still being detected, which indicated ongoing volcanic activity, AFP reported.
Mt Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted multiple times in November, killing nine people and forcing thousands to evacuate, as well as causing the cancellation of scores of international flights to Bali.
Laki-Laki, which means man in Indonesian, is twinned with the calmer but taller 1703m volcano named Perempuan, after the Indonesian word for woman.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, is on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
