JAKARTA (AP): Indonesia was forced to temporarily close its main international airport Friday because of poor visibility during heavy rains, said an official. More than 60 planes were delayed or diverted.
Hariyanto, a spokesman for the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, said he hoped that the facility will reopen in early afternoon. Runs were not flooded, but the visibility was less than 300 meters - compared to the minimum level of 500 metres, hesaid.
Forty-three flights were delayed and 21 diverted to other airports, Hariyanto said.
Indonesia was pounded by rain late Thursday and early Friday, bringing traffic to a standstill in much of the capital, Jakarta.
The rain is expected to continue until nightfall, Zakir Ahmad, a spokesman for the meteorology and geophysics agency, told El Shinta radio.
Flooding in the city for the last time in February 2007 in Jakarta, much of which is below sea level. Environmentalists have blamed the flooding of garbage from rivers clogged, rampant overdevelopment and deforestation of the hills south of the city.
