The airport`s spokesman, Effendi R, said the pilots of the two planes decided to return to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport due to extremely bad weather.
"The two airplanes departed from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport`s domestic terminal to Depati Amir Airport here with around 100 passengers on board respectively," he said.
The pilots decided to return to their airport of origin after their visibility was disrupted by the torrential rain and thick haze when approaching Depati Amir Airport at 04.30 PM, he said.
For the sake of the passengers and crew members` safety, the Garuda and Lion Air`s pilots decided to return to Jakarta, Effendi said.
"None of passengers at Depati Amir Airport files a protest because they do know that their flights cannot be forced amid the bad weather," he said.
The delayed flights were purely caused by weather factor not by technical errors, he said adding that the airport was again landed by commercial planes after the weather condition returned to normal.
"The planes, whose pilots have decided to cancel their landings, are only Garuda and Lion Air`s. The pilots` decisions are purely related to weather condition," he said.
Depati Amir Airport`s Operational Chief, Agus Maulana, said the pilots had rights to cancel landing if the weather was so bad.
"The pilots keep coordinating with the meteorology and geophysics authorities during their flights."
"If the weather condition is not possible for them to land, they have rights to cancel the landing and return to Jakarta (their airport of origin)," he said.
Over the past year, various parts of Indonesia have been hit by extremely bad weather, coupled with heavy rains and whirlwinds.
The extreme weather conditions had even triggered high waves in the Sunda Strait. As a result, several hundreds of trucks got stranded in Merak, Banten province, over the past few days. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
