What's This?
Mount Raung. Image: Getty Images
By Jenni RyallAustralia2015-07-12 12:56:50 UTC
UPDATE: Sunday, July 12, 11:11 p.m.: GA715 departed Jakarta for Denpasar, Bali after passengers spent six hours in the terminal and two hours waiting on board the plane.
Hundreds of passengers have been stranded in a terminal in Jakarta after an ash cloud caused the diversion of a flight en route to Bali.
The passengers were travelling from Sydney, Australia to Denpasar, Bali on Garuda flight GA715, which departed Sunday morning at 6 a.m. AEST. The flight was originally due to depart Sydney at 10:25 a.m. on Saturday morning, but was one of the hundreds of flights delayed due to an ash cloud from the active volcano, Mount Raung in East Java.
After finally departing Australia, flight GA715 was descending into Denpasar Airport when it changed route for Jakarta, Indonesia due to the ash blowing into the flight path.
The flight landed at Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, at 11 a.m. local time Sunday, and by 5 p.m. passengers had no information about when they would be departing. At 6 p.m. local time passengers were boarded onto the plane, but it remained on the tarmac two hours later with no further information.
Australian traveller Annette Tilden, who was flying to her son's wedding in Bali, told Mashable Australia the situation in the terminal was a "nightmare."
Babies were without food or nappies, the bathrooms were dirty and had run out of toilet paper and there was little to no communication from Garuda staff, Tilden said.
"We have been sitting in this terminal for six hours," she said, before boarding. "They have left us sitting here and have not told us anything. People are getting information from websites and from home."
"There are babies that have no formula and no nappies ... They told the people with the babies to go into the terminal and buy food there, but there isn't any formula, and no nappies as far as I could see," Tilden added.
Ken Quimby wrote on Twitter his seven-month-old baby had no food, and that people are getting "tired, angry and scared."
Passengers were given bread rolls and a bottle of water in the terminal by Garuda staff, and dinner after boarding the plane. Many agitated travellers flocked around the information desk in the terminal desperate for answers, but little information was provided.
Foreign tourist flock at Ngurah Rai International airport on July 10, 2015 in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.
A number of passengers said multiple domestic flights have left Jakarta and landed in Bali during the past few hours.
"Everyone is starting to get irate and really fed up," Tilden said. "Obviously, we can't get into Denpasar if it is closed, and everyone understands that, and I think that is why everyone has been patiently waiting, but the lack of information, facilities and communication is making it difficult."
Garuda advised in a statement Sunday afternoon that Denpasar Airport in Bali had reopened and some flights were delayed. Garuda has been contacted for comment.
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Source: Giant ash cloud leaves hundreds stranded in Jakarta, babies without food
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