Floating lanterns divert planes

[Rayney]

Floating lanterns divert planes
February 10, 2003

THOUSANDS of floating Chinese lanterns launched in celebration lit up the night sky and caused 12 aircraft approaching an international airport in Malaysia to be diverted, local media has reported.

The bamboo and oilpaper lanterns, fuelled by kerosene, were released on the resort island of Penang yesterday to mark the eighth day of the Chinese New Year and several fell on the airport runway, the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) said.

Local DCA manager Ooi Chuang Leong told the New Straits Times that air traffic controllers had been forced to warn aircraft to approach from a higher than usual altitude and from over the sea to "avoid coming into possible contact with the lanterns".

The airport, which serves international tourists and businessmen visiting Penang's hi-tech manufacturing industries, handles 120 flights daily.

The DCA, police and the state government met today and decided to "look into the legal provisions on airborne lanterns", which are offered as prayers to the heavenly gods, the official Bernama news agency reported.

State police chief Arthur Edmonds told Bernama that in the meantime police would take unspecified "preventive measures" against a repeat of the problem, because an aircraft could explode if lanterns were sucked into its engines.

Agence France-Presse