All Flights To And From Sampit Delayed On Haze Of Smoke

Sampit, Nov 5 (Antara) - All flights to and from the Haji Asan airport of Sampit in the regency of Kotawaringin Timur, Central Kalimantan are delayed on black haze of smoke blanketing the air strip. "There was no flight today , all flight schedules are cancelled as the airport is fulled with thick smokes," head of the district communications and informatics office Fadlian Noor said here on Wednesday. Fadlian said he was sorry with the inconvenience but the decision is for the flight security and it is not known how long the airport could remain closed. Flights to Sampit have to be diverted to other airports until the condition is declared safe, he said. Sri Suyanti, who held a ticket for Semarang, said she was disappointed with the cancellation of the flight as she could not attend the burial of a dead member of her family in Central Java. "I do understand that the airline could not be blamed," she said. Meanwhile, Supian Hadi, the regent of Kotawaringin Timur said the thick smoke had disrupted not only air flights but had also caused great inconvenience in all transport systems in the district. Supian said the smoke came from other districts. He acknowledged that there were bush fires in Kotawaringin Timur but they are small fires and sent no much smoke. Last week haze of smoke that blanketed Syamsudin Noor Airport of Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, also delayed at least five flights. "There are five flights delayed for about 30 minutes to one hour from schedule," Airport Service Section Head of PT Angkasa Pura I port operator, Heru Widiantmo said in the South Kalimantan capital. Thick haze began blanketing Banjarmasin and nearby city of Bandarbaru causing difficulty to breathe for the people. Many people chose to stay home and passers by and motorists had to wear maskers. In South Sumatra a number of airlines have been forced to delay departures from the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II airport of Palembang early last week. The nation`s flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air each delayed two flights and CitiLink with a flight to Jakarta on restricted visibility. "One could see only as far as 200 meter ahead ," an airport official said, adding, "no take off until 08.30 this morning." Bad weather with thick cloud has frequently affected flights in Palembang over the past three months, he said. Fires in 300 locations had burned down over a 10,000 hectares of bush lands in seven regencies in the province. Careless farmers burned the bushes against the law to clear land for farming. Neighboring countries including Malaysia and Singapore have earlier protested against Indonesia for failure to control its bush fires that sent black smoke across the borders mainly from Sumatra and Kalimantan.