Flights resume to Indonesia after volcanic ash cloud

International flights to Jakarta returned to normal yesterday after ash clouds from Indonesia’s most active volcano caused a weekend of travel chaos ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama.

The toll from a series of eruptions of Mount Merapi over the past two weeks rose to 141 on Monday as bodies were pulled from the sludge that incinera-ted villages last Friday, the volcano’s biggest blast since the 1870s.

The latest eruption forced airlines to cancel 44 flights at the weekend, but officials said there would be no repeat of events in Iceland this year when a volcano disrupted transport across Europe.

“Everything has returned to normal today,” Air Transport’s director general Herry Bakti said, referring to flights in and out of Soekarno Hatta international airport in Jakarta.

Mr Obama is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta today for a highly anticipated – and twice delayed – visit and US embassy spokesman Paul Belmont said the trip “will go ahead as planned”.

Merapi lies 430 kilometres east of Jakarta but only 26 kilometres north of Yogyakarta, the historic capital of Central Java province.

Rescuers said yesterday they found six bodies, including those of four rescuers, in Glagaharjo village, about 10 kilometres from the mountain.

More than 278,000 people are living in cramped temporary shelters after being ordered to evacuate from a 20-kilometre “danger zone”.

Indonesia’s most-visited tourist site, the ancient Borobudur temple, about 40 kilometres southwest of the volcano, was closed for a fourth day.

“The ash is two centimetres thick... We’re worried that the temple’s statues could be damaged by this material,” temple official Iskandar said.

Disaster management agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho warned of potential flooding after volcanic debris known as lahar flowed into the Code River in Yogyakarta on Saturday.

“One of our concerns is potential flooding due to the flow of lahar. We’ve asked residents living close to 12 rivers around Merapi to be more vigilant as there’s a chance that might happen,” he said.

The Indonesian archipelago has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault lines known as the “ring of fire” from the Indian to the Pacific oceans.