Bali volcano erupts but no alternation in flights

A volcano on the Indonesian island of Bali has rumbled into life with a series of eruptions that temporarily disrupted some international flights to the popular tourist destination.

Australian airline Jetstar, which cancelled nine flights to and from Bali yesterday, said most of its Bali flights will operate normally today after its senior pilots assessed it was safe to fly.

However it warned that the movement of ash cloud is highly unpredictable and flights could still be cancelled at short notice. Mount Agung erupted yesterday, hurling ash 4,900 feet above the crater, and again twice early today, lighting its cone with an orange glow and sending ash 9,840 feet into the atmosphere.

The ash clouds have been moving away from Bali’s airport, where nearly all scheduled domestic and international flights were continuing today. Disaster officials said ash up to half a centimetre (less than an inch) thick has settled on villages around the volcano and soldiers and police were distributing masks.

Authorities said anyone still in the exclusion zone around the volcano, which extends 7.5 kilometres from the crater in places, should leave the area. Agung also had a minor eruption on Tuesday but authorities have not raised its alert status from the second highest level, which would widen the exclusion area and prompt a large evacuation of people. About 25,000 people have been unable to return to their homes since September, when Agung showed signs of activity for the first time in more than half a century.

The volcano’s last major eruption in 1963 killed about 1,100 people.

Indonesia sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire” and has more than 120 active volcanoes.