"The longest delay, reaching nine hours, happened with a Lion Air plane from Kuala Namu airport, North Sumatra, to Pekanbarus SSK II airport," Hasnan, the airport duty manager, said here on Saturday.
The Lion Air plane was scheduled to arrive at SSK II airport at 7 am, but due to thick smoke the plane did not land until 4 pm.
He said other flights had an average delay of about three hours.
"Visibility happened to drop to 800 meters because of the smog that covered the airport," he added.
Baiquni, who took over as airport duty manager on Saturday night said, on average, there were 10 scheduled flights that were disrupted every day.
Thus, over the past three weeks about 210 flights were delayed at the SSK II airport in Pekanbaru.
Those flights included domestic and international flights.
The Terra and Aqua satellite has detected 1,046 hotspots from forests, plantations and peatland fires across Sumatra Island, it was reported Saturday morning.
"Of the total number, 963 were found in Riau Province. The number is significantly up from those on the previous day," Sugarin, the head of the Pekanbaru meteorological, climatology and geophysics agency, said here on Saturday.
The NOAA 18 satellite, however, detected only 138 hotspots across Sumatra on Friday, including 70 in Riau province, according to the Riau disaster mitigation office (BPBD).
So far this month, the NOAA 8 satellite revealed 2,208 hotspots on Sumatra Island, including 1,272 in Riau Province.
In Riau, hotspots were found in Bengkalis (312), Pelalawan (198 titik), Dumai (174), Siak (147), Indragiri Hilir (130), Rokan Hilir (110), Meranti (91), Kampar (49), Indragiri Hulu (29), and Kuantan Singingi (16).
Also, Chief of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Syamsul Maarif stated that some 99 percent of forest and plantation fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan were deliberately set.
"There should be sanctions to stop recurrences. Slash-and-burn farming methods exist in Sumatra and Kalimantan, but the most important thing is that they should be controlled," Maarif noted in a statement on Feb. 28.
According to Maarif, the Indonesian police have named 23 suspects in Riau and 16 in Central Kalimantan, who allegedly set the fires.
"There are several factors behind their decision to set fires in plantation and forest areas, such as economic, social and cultural factors," he explained.
The hotspots were also detected in other districts of Riau, including Indragiri Hulu (29), and Rokan Hulu (14), as well as Riaus capital of Pekanbaru (two).
On February 28, the Riau provincial police announced that 40 individuals have been named as suspects in forest and plantations fires in several districts and cities.
"All of them have been detained, after being identified as suspects, for allegedly setting fires during the past several weeks," said Senior Commissioner Estuning of the Riau police plantation fire task force.
The suspects were all individuals, she added. "The cases allegedly involving companies are still under investigation," she pointed out.
(A014/INE)
(A014/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
