Indonesia deploys dry ice flights to lift haze over South Sumatra airport

Berton Panjaitan, who leads BNPB's Disaster Data, Information and Communication Center, announced that three sorties from Raden Inten II Airport in Bandar Lampung used 800 kg of dry ice to combat dense haze over Palembang's Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport. The haze had caused flight disruptions and raised health worries. By seeding dry ice into the inversion layer, officials aimed to destabilise the trapped smoke, and visibility improved from 1,000 m at 1 p.m. to between 1,500 and 2,000 m within hours, later stabilising at 2,800 m and reaching 3,000 m by nightfall.

The clearer skies are expected to support smoother flight operations. BNPB plans further evaluation to compare dry-ice seeding with other meteorological influences on visibility.