Flights canceled, residents to evacuate as Papua New Guinea volcano erupts
Ash column rises from Mount Ulawun, as seen from an airplane window, Papua New Guinea November 21, 2023, in this picture obtained from social media. Enoch Lapa/via REUTERS
SYDNEY — Some residents of a remote Papua New Guinea island were preparing on Tuesday to evacuate from the vicinity of an erupting volcano that shot a cloud of ash into the sky, forcing the cancellation of some flights.
Teams had been sent to the Mount Ulawun area on New Britain island to coordinate an evacuation after it began erupting on Monday, state broadcaster NBC PNG reported senior disaster management official Clement Bailey as saying.
Flights from the island’s Hoskins airport had been canceled, the broadcaster said, adding that the volcano was still erupting.
Papua New Guinea is on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horse-shoe-shaped band of volcanoes and fault lines circling the edges of the Pacific Ocean.
