"No helicopter pilots dared to fly to conduct water bombing due to thick haze," the Chief of Data Division of National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Agus Wibowo, said.Pekanbaru, Riau Province (ANTARA News) - The water bomb operation to extinguish hot spots in the Riau Province was delayed on Thursday as thick haze decreased the visibility range in the area, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
"No helicopter pilots dared to fly to conduct water bombing due to thick haze," the Chief of Data Division of the agency, Agus Wibowo, told ANTARA here on Thursday.
The haze that had covered Pekanbaru since Thursday morning had decreased the visibility range to below 500 meters.
Those conditions, Agus said, had forced the officers to conduct water bombing on several hot spots in Riau.
"The helicopters did not take off since morning as the hot spots were covered by haze," Agus said.
The helicopters are at standby for use by the Haze Disaster Mitigation Task Force in the Roesmin Nurjadin Air Base.
"We are parking the helicopters in the air base as their flights to extinguish the fires were canceled due to worsening air visibility," he said, adding that the wide type of helicopter, Kamov, also cannot be operated.
"We only hope that there will be rainfall to extinguish the land fires that caused haze," Agus said.
The agency plans to water bomb the hot spots on Friday using the Hercules C-130 airplane.
The airplane will take off from the Halim Perdana Kusuma Air Base in East Jakarta.
Haze disaster in the Riau Province had affected the activities and health of 37,500 people in the last six weeks and caused them to suffer from respiratory infections.
The Riau province had suffered a loss estimated at Rp10 trillion due to haze from forest and plantation fires.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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