Volcano in Indonesia erupts, canceling hundreds of flights and stranding thousands

BREAKING: A volcano erupts in Indonesia, cancelling hundreds of flights and stranding thousands of travellers.

A volcano is erupting in Indonesia, and hundreds of flights just vanished off the board.

This is Anak Krakatau, out in the Sunda Strait, and you can see the plume here, a column of ash and steam pushed high into the sky. Volcanic ash shreds jet engines, so when a plume like that goes up, everything around it stays on the ground.

The result is thousands of travellers stranded, airports watching the wind and waiting for the ash to clear, and airlines cancelling by the hundred rather than risk a single aircraft.

And the name carries weight. Anak Krakatau means child of Krakatoa, born from the volcano behind the catastrophic 1883 eruption. In 2018, a collapse on this same mountain sent a tsunami into the coast that killed hundreds of people.

For now, the story is disruption rather than casualties. Thousands of people going nowhere until this mountain settles.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.