7 Flights in Pekanbaru Interrupted Due to Visibility Constraints

Tampak pesawat parkir di Bandara Sultan Syarif Kasim II Pekanbaru akibat kabut, di Pekanbaru, Provinsi Riau, Senin (12/9/2022). (FOTO ANTARA/HO-Bandara SSK)

PEKANBARU - A total of seven flights, both for departure and arrival, at Sultan Syarif Kasim Airport (SSK) II Pekanbaru, Riau, experienced problems due to foggy visibility.

On Monday morning there was a fog disturbance which affected visibility at SSK II Pekanbaru Airport", said Executive General Manager of SSK II Airport PT Angkasa Pura II (Persero), Mohamad Hendra Irawan, in Pekanbaru as reported by ANTARA, Monday, September 12.

Pekanbaru's visibility experienced the lowest phase of 200 meters at 07.00 WIB.

"However, at 08.00 WIB, the visibility was back to normal, which was already above 4 kilometers", he said.

According to him, limited visibility had an impact on the delay of four departures and three arrivals on Monday morning.

As for the four flights that experienced delays in departure, namely, Citilink QG937 (PKU-CGK) should have departed at 07.39 WIB, or experienced a delay of 1 hour 24 minutes.

Likewise, Batik Air ID7064 (PKU-CGK), which had to depart at 07.52 WIB, experienced a delay of 1 hour 41 minutes.

Lion Air JT 393 (PKU-CGK) was originally set to depart at 08.02 WIB and then experienced a delay of 1 hour 42 minutes and Lion Air JT 279 (PKU-YIA) departed at 08.20 WIB, experiencing a delay of 1 hour and 20 minutes.

"There were also disturbances for arrivals because three planes could not land due to fog", he said.

As for the three planes that experienced landing delays at SSK II Pekanbaru, namely, Batik Air ID 6856 (CGK-PKU) originally landed at 07.47 WIB, experiencing a delay of 37 minutes, Citilink QG936 (CGK-PKU) originally landing at 08.16 WIB, experiencing a delay of 21 minutes, plus Super Air Jet IU910 (CGK-PKU) landed at 08.27 WIB, experiencing a delay of 47 minutes.

Meanwhile, the BMKG forecaster for Pekanbaru Station, Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Ahmad Agus, said the visibility was only 100 meters.

He said that the cause of the limited visibility in Pekanbaru this morning was not smog but fog. "It's fog, not smog", he said.

According to him, this is normal because yesterday it was cloudy all day, but it didn't rain.

"And because that morning the air pressure tends to rise, so he will press the water vapor in the atmosphere to go down, coincidentally the humidity is quite wet", he said.

This condition is not expected to last long. If the fog tends to disappear quickly because it is water vapor.

"It won't take long, if the fog tends to be fast, it's water vapor. Actually, the water vapor evaporates when it gets hot", said Ahmad Agus.