Bad Weather, 3 Commercial Planes Failed To Land At Palu Airport

Illustration - Passengers walk to the plane for departure from Mutiara Sis Al-Jufri Airport in Palu, Central Sulawesi (ANTARA)

PALU - The authorities of the Mutiara Sis-Aljufi Airport Organizing Unit in Palu, Central Sulawesi reported that the planes from three national airlines Garuda Indonesia, Batik Air and Citilink canceled landing at the airport due to bad weather that hit the area. "There are three airlines that previously could not land at Mutiara Sis Al Jufri Airport in Palu, namely Garuda Indonesia, Batik Air and Citilink," said Head of the service and cooperation Section of UPBU Mutiara Sis Al Jufri Palu Tri Renggi Joko Wahono, quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, January 24. He explained that the three airlines were route Jakarta - Palu and were scheduled to arrive in Palu at 06.15 WITA. However, he said, all three planes canceled landing at Mutiara Sis Aljufri Airport Palu due to bad weather, namely rain accompanied by dark clouds so that the pilot's visibility experienced limitations of viewing the runway or not being seen.

"Due to rainy weather accompanied by dark clouds so that visibility to see the runway is limited or not visible. It automatically cannot land," he said.Pilot then decided to move to Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan Airport Balikpapan, and decided to fly back to Mutiara Sis Aljufri Airport Palub after the weather was quite good. He continued that the three airlines had now successfully landed at Mutiara Sis Aljufri Airport in Palu. "Batik Air managed to land at 10.58 WITA, Garuda Indonesia arrived at 10.43 WITA, and Citilink also just arrived at 11.25 WITA," he said.

Previously, the BMKG had issued an early warning of bad weather in the Central Sulawesi region, a number of areas had the potential for moderate to heavy rain accompanied by lightning and strong winds. The province of Central Sulawesi is starting to enter the rainy season, and it is estimated that the peak of the rainy season will be in January and February.