Manila flights cancelled as Taal Volcano alert raised to possible ‘hazardous eruption’
By Arjay L. Balinbin, Reporter
FLIGHT OPERATIONS at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), the country’s main gateway, were temporarily suspended as of Sunday evening due to volcanic ash being spewed by Taal Volcano, located less than 100 kilometers south of the capital.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) made the announcement as the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (DoST-PHIVOLCS), in its bulletin as of 7:30 p.m., raised the alert level to #4, which means a “hazardous eruption” is “imminent” within hours or days.
“Flight operations at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have been temporarily suspended due to the volcanic ash from the phreatic eruption of Taal Volcano earlier this afternoon, 12 January 2020,” the Department of Transportation (DoTr) said.
Airline operators also made separate announcements on cancelled or diverted flights.
Philippine Airlines (PAL) said it diverted its Manila-bound flights from London, Haneda, and Xiamen to the Clark International Airport in Pampanga, located less than 100 kms north of Metro Manila.
PAL also cancelled all flights scheduled to depart from Manila between 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.
AirAsia Philippines and Cebu Pacific said they would also suspend and cancel domestic and international flights to and from NAIA.
Local governments within Metro Manila and southern Luzon provinces have declared the cancellation of classes on Monday.
DoST-PHIVOLCS said that as of 5:30 p.m., eruptive activity at Taal Volcano’s main crater had “intensified as continuous eruption generated a tall 10-15 kilometer steam-laden tephra column with frequent volcanic lightning that rained wet ashfall on the general north as far as Quezon City.”
The agency also recorded volcanic tremor and two volcanic eathquakes of magnitudes 2.5 and 3.9 in Tagaytay and Alitagtag, Batangas between 6:15 p.m. and 6:22 p.m.
POWER
Meanwhile, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said it is “implementing contingency measures” as it continues to monitor the impact on transmission facilities.
In an advisory as of 8:20 p.m., NGCP reported outage of three 500-kV lines and two 230-kV linesashfall in the Batangas, Laguna, and Cavite areas due to ashfall.
“To maintain the integrity of the grid and manage voltage levels, capacitor banks were put online and an initial 72 megaWatts (MW) of load from Meralco was dropped,” it said.
“As soon as the situation is deemed safe, line crews will be mobilized to inspect the lines and conduct cleaning of critical line equipment,” it added.
