Ontakesan Volcano Erupts Affecting Aviation in Central Japan
 
Ontakesan before and after: June 2014, left and September 27.
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Ontakasan volcano erupted at 11:53 Japan Standard Time, September 27. Located at borders of Nagano and Gifu prefectures, the mountain, 3,067 meters or 10,060 ft. has been inactive for the first time since the last eruption in 1979.
Some of domestic and international flights planned to fly over nearby airspace in central part of Honshu island has been diverted including Jetstar flights from Australia to Narita Tokyo which landed on Kansai International Airport.
Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have altered flight routes respetively causing some delay in specific flights.
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism issued a NOTAM in Sunday afternoon calling for attention to aircraft to fly nearby the mounting as volcano smoke might be ascending to altitude as high as 8,000 meters (26,000 ft.). Pilots who flew closer to the volcano reported they had seen smoke rising to 4,500 meters (14,760 ft.)
Ontakesan is located closer to flight routes between Tokyo Haneda airport and Hokuriku region, as well as Chubu International Airport and Hokkaido/Tohoku regions. As some flights had to divert their normal routes, they flew longer for 30 minutes or so on that day.
As of Monday morning, authorities were trying to rescue those left mountain climbers by helicopters and other means. At least four people were found dead, 16 others were critical. The mountain is a popular climbing spot and there were over 200 people were believed to be there over the last weekend. Effective immediately after the eruption, meteorological authority issued an alert and asked no one to approach the spot.
