'Stop, stop! That kite can bring down a plane'

Indonesia is cracking down on popular pastime among kids near airports

- Arlina Arshad

TANGERANG, Indonesia - From a distance, they looked like harmless black specks dancing in the sky. But for aviation security, they were a red alert.

On a quiet afternoon in Neglasari, a sub-district just kilometres from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, a patrol team sprang into action. Its target? Kites.

Four uniformed officers stepped out of an open-backed truck and fanned out across a cemetery. They scanned the sky for rogue kites and the ground, for the children flying them.

Leading the operation was Mr Ito Sucipto, the sub-district's head of public security and order. His mission was simple: Stop the kites before they went anywhere near a plane.

That day, three boys aged between 12 and 16 ran down narrow alleys as the patrol closed in. A homemade reel lay abandoned between gravestones. Overhead, a kite flailed in the wind. Not far away, a commercial plane began its descent.

"Stop, stop! Do not run, come back!" Mr Ito shouted. "That kite could bring down a plane."

One officer grabbed the string. Another reeled it in. The kite vanished into the patrol vehicle - one of a handful confiscated in recent weeks.

It is a familiar scene in one of Indonesia's most unusual crackdowns, on an airborne threat hiding in plain sight. Kite flying is a popular pastime in the country, but kites flown in restricted aviation zones have been a menace for years and is one that is hard to cut out completely.

Patrols were ramped up in Jakarta after kite-flying surged during the school holidays from June 28 to July 12, causing chaos in the skies. Between July 4 and 6 alone, 21 flights were disrupted: nine were diverted, six had landings aborted, five cancelled approaches and one aircraft turned back. All were blamed on kites.

Every case occurred within the Flight Operations Safety Area, or KKOP, a strictly controlled red zone covering Neglasari and districts within a 15km radius of the Jakarta airport.