Two Virgin flights from Perth to Phuket cancelled due to Indonesia volcanic ash: report

[webfact]

Two Virgin flights from Perth to Phuket cancelled due to Indonesia volcanic ash: report

PHUKET: -- Two Virgin Australia flights from Perth to Phuket have been cancelled today (February 14) due to the volcanic ash cloud in Indonesia, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper has reported.

Virgin Australia has cancelled all flights to Bali, Phuket, Christmas Island and Cocos Island after an eruption in Indonesia closed three international airports and darkened skies across a large swath of the country's most densely populated island, Java.

The newspaper reported that Virgin Australia has cancelled all flights to Bali, Phuket, Christmas Island and Cocos Island after an eruption from Mount Kelud in Indonesia closed three international airports and darkened skies across a large swath of the country's most densely populated island, Java.

At least 10 Virgin Australia flights have been cancelled, including flights from Denpasar to Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. Four inbound flights from Bali to Australia have been grounded.

An additional two flights between Perth and Phuket were also cancelled, it was reported.

“For safety reasons, we can’t fly within 100 nautical miles of an ash cloud so that’s why we’ve had to cancel them,” a Virgin Australia spokeswoman was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

"Guests will be reaccommodated to the next available flight accordingly."

Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians were ordered to evacuate and three international airports were closed after a volcano on the main island of Java erupted spectacularly, hurling red-hot ash and rocks.

The alert status for Mount Kelud, considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes on densely populated Java, was raised late Thursday just hours before it began erupting.

TV images showed ash and rocks raining down on nearby villages, while AFP correspondents at the scene saw terrified locals covered in ash fleeing in cars and on motorbikes towards evacuation centres.

International airports in the Javanese cities of Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Solo were closed temporarily, Transport Ministry director general of aviation Herry Bakti said on Metro TV, which showed images of grounded planes covered in ash.

National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that some 200,000 people from 36 villages in a 10-kilometre (six-mile) area around Kelud, in Kediri district in eastern Java, had been told to evacuate.

"A rain of ash, sand and rocks is reaching up to 15 kilometres (nine miles)" from the volcano's crater, he said.

Many of the men displaced tried to return to their homes near the foot of the volcano early Friday morning to gather their families' clothing and valuables, but a continuous downpour of volcanic ash and rocks sent them running back.

At a temporary shelter in the village of Bladak, some 10 kilometres from the volcano's crater, around 400 displaced people, including children, slept on the floor wearing safety masks.

The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation said there was little chance of another eruption as powerful as Thursday night's, but tremors around the volcano could still be felt Friday as volcanic materials continued to blanket the rooftops of entire villages.

Communities within the affected 15-kilometre radius began clearing piles of grey ash as high as five centimetres from roads to avoid accidents, Nugroho said.

The National Search and Rescue Agency sent text messages to residents of affected areas warning them not to return home, saying that lava was still flowing through some villages while sulphur was lingering in the air in others.

The 1,731-metre (5,712-foot) Mount Kelud has claimed more than 15,000 lives since 1500, including around 10,000 deaths in a massive 1568 eruption.

It is one of some 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a belt of seismic activity running around the basin of the Pacific Ocean.

Earlier this month another volcano, Mount Sinabung on western Sumatra island, unleashed an enormous eruption that left at least 16 people dead.

Sinabung has been erupting on an almost daily basis since September, coating villages and crops with ash and forcing tens of thousands out of their homes.

– Additional reporting AFP

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/two-virgin-flights-from-perth-to-phuket-cancelled-due-to-indonesia-volcanic-ash-report-44609.php


-- Phuket News 2014-02-14

[JetsetBkk]

Hmm. If they could just keep that volcano going for a year or two...

[Costas2008]

Where did they find them in Australia?

[canopus1969]

we can’t fly within 100 nautical miles of an ash cloud

I can understand that but why not fly around it ?

[andreandre]

Where did they find them in Australia?

You are hilarious.....

[Costas2008]

I know.

[HOOD Robin]

we can’t fly within 100 nautical miles of an ash cloud

I can understand that but why not fly around it ?

i was also wondering....? From Perth to Phuket can not be a big problem, can it ?

[atyclb]

The true story about how british airways learned about volcanic ash the hard way

Edited February 14, 2014 by atyclb

[andreandre]

I know.

hilarious from a 16 yo..not a 66 yo...

[Old Croc]

Hmm. If they could just keep that volcano going for a year or two...

And if Iceland's volcanoes could close down those crappy little British Isles again....

[nahkbin]

Must have created a real shortage of virgins in Phuket for Valentines Day!

[JetsetBkk]

Hmm. If they could just keep that volcano going for a year or two...

And if Iceland's volcanoes could close down those crappy little British Isles again....

I'm guessing you're Australian?

[KarenBravo]

Yay......less village bogans.

[jocko]

Strewth.

[LivinginKata]

The true story about how british airways learned about volcanic ash the hard way

Worth the time to watch.

[Guest]

Oh. I thought this was about cancellation of Perth Linux users group conference in Phuket.

[IrishIvan]

Perth actually has quality bogans with a bit more money than most. Its those flights from Sydney and the Gold Coast that are the worst. no one likes a bogan with no money.

Always easy to spot the Australians in Phuket, the young males look like homosexuals with their haircuts full of hair product. The women are just plain and takky

[hansgruber]

Perth actually has quality bogans with a bit more money than most. Its those flights from Sydney and the Gold Coast that are the worst. no one likes a bogan with no money.

Always easy to spot the Australians in Phuket, the young males look like homosexuals with their haircuts full of hair product. The women are just plain and takky

You forgot the tattoos and women being fat and pale.

[canman]

No one told me it was bash the Aussie week!

[hansgruber]

No one told me it was bash the Aussie week!

Aussie was last week. It's North African French week complete with tmaxs and ladyboys.

[IrishIvan]

No one told me it was bash the Aussie week!

Well it is Thaivisa and we insult everyone else. I only learnt to be racist after i moved to Thailand.

Not that many aussies actually spend money in Phuket. They come on package deals booked in their home countries and a lot of tours are sold on vouchers, so the locals dont see any of the money.

The only thing they do is drink VB in the aussie bar in Patong. They are really like the Chinese of the westerners that come to Phuket. Low end. Virgin is a budget airline with no business class so we arent seeing the superyacht billionares coming to Phuket for a holiday.