"Our towers were affected because of the very strong earthquake, and as a result our communication network was cut off. Because of that condition we issued a Notice To Airmen (Notam) to temporarily close the airport," Airnav Indonesia Public Relations Manager Yohanes Sirait told Antara in Jakarta on Friday.
Airnav has published Notam Number H0737 that SIS Al Jufri Palu Airport is closed from September 28, 2018 at 7.26 p.m local time (WITA) until 7.20 p.m on September 29, 2018, said Yohanes.
Coordination was still being carried out to monitor current conditions.
"We continue to check the conditions in the field until there is the latest information and the subsequent publication of Notam," he said.
The earthquake shook the city of Palu and its surroundings on Saturday morning with a magnitude of 5.1 on the Richter Scale (SR) at 7.20 a.m WITA.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) stated that the earthquake epicenter was locaed at 0.83 degrees Southern Latitude (LS) and 119.83 degrees East Longitude (BT). According to BMKG, a 5.1 SR earthquake did not have the potential to cause a tsunami.
Reporting by Juwita Trisna Rahayu
Editing by Andi Abdussalam
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Suharto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
