At a paddy area two kilometres from Jakarta’s worldwide airport, the rustle of fluttering kites is periodically drowned out by the thunderous roar of airplane engines.
Tugging at kite strings within the area are a bunch of kids, their necks craned in the direction of the skies. However their eyes are additionally darting beneath, protecting a lookout for patrolling airport officers who might come to confiscate their kites – and their enjoyable.
“Up to now, my pals and I might run away when an officer got here,” seven-year-old Atif, one of many youngsters within the area, tells the BBC. “Now I am braver, so I go together with it once they scold me.”
“If my kite is taken, it is unhappy, however I can at all times make one other one.”
A tug of warfare is unfolding right here, between airport authorities and considered one of Indonesia’s most cherished pastimes.
Kite-flying is well-liked in Indonesia – particularly right now of the yr when college students go on summer season holidays. However authorities have issued warnings concerning the kites, which they are saying pose a security hazard in the event that they block plane sensors or get snagged in engines.
Throughout three days in early July, kites disrupted 21 flights at Soekarno-Hatta Worldwide Airport, the one close to the paddy area, in line with air-traffic controller AirNav Indonesia. Some had been diverted to a different airport and a few aborted landings, deeming it too harmful to go close to the kites.
Kites are “shifting obstacles” for planes and a “critical danger to flight security”, Putu Eka Cahyadi, head of the Soekarno-Hatta Worldwide Airport Authority, tells the BBC.
“We do not need accidents to happen.”
Youngsters have continued to fly kites at a area close to the airport, regardless of warnings from authorities [Haryo Bangun Wirawan/BBC]
Such fears usually are not unfounded.
In July 2024, a helicopter crashed in Bali after it acquired entangled in kite strings, injuring three Indonesians and two Australians on board.
In July 2020, strings and bamboo sticks from a kite have been discovered within the engine of a airplane after it arrived at Soekarno-Hatta. Whereas the airplane had managed to land with out mishap, the incident triggered critical security considerations. The next month, the airport arrange a job drive to crack down on kite-flying close to its premises.
5 years on, the issue has persevered. In July, transport minister Dudy Purwagandhi urged airport authorities and regional governments throughout Indonesia to minimise the hurt that kites are posing to flights.
“It is definitely a enjoyable exercise, however we additionally want to coach them to stop the general public or kids from partaking in actions that might endanger flights,” says Mr Putu.
His colleagues have tried giving the youngsters footballs and badminton racquets to steer them in the direction of different sports activities. However kite-flying is woven into the material of Indonesian tradition.
Historically made with leaves, vibrant paper or fabric, kites are flown in Indonesia for numerous functions: for rice harvest ceremonies, to chase birds away from crops or, in Bali, as a type of prayer and providing to the gods.
“Kite flying has been handed down by means of generations from our ancestors. Virtually each area in Indonesia has a convention of kite flying,” says Asep Irawan, an skilled from the Indonesia Kite Museum.
“Nonetheless, we have to be cautious, particularly [with] kids. They simply fly them. They do not see the potential hazard.”
Youngsters say they cannot discover higher locations to fly their kites [Haryo Bangun Wirawan/BBC]
These caught flying kites, drones or different issues that pose security dangers round airports could also be jailed as much as three years or fined one billion Indonesian rupiah ($61,000; £46,000).
Nevertheless it’s not simply on airstrips that kites may be harmful. In densely populated areas, kites are additionally a lethal distraction. Final yr, an eight-year-old boy died after venturing onto a toll street in Depok metropolis, south of Jakarta. Police imagine he was hit by a automobile whereas chasing a kite.
In 2020, a person was arrested after his kite broke and fell onto a substation in Bali, inflicting hours of blackout in additional than 70,000 homes and buildings.
Again on the paddy area close to Soekarno-Hatta Airport, the kids say they do not imply to mess with the planes – however they’re hard-pressed to seek out higher locations for his or her passion.
Jakarta misplaced 31% of its city inexperienced areas between 2000 and 2020, as fields and forests gave approach to congested roads and condo blocks.
“There’s nowhere else round right here,” says Rasha, a 17-year-old who makes and sells kites. “There’s one different spot, nevertheless it’s nonetheless near the airport. There simply aren’t another locations to fly.”
The paddy area is now house to a neighborhood of kite lovers, who organise common kite-flying competitions. Rasha has received them twice.
He has acquired into bother earlier than with the patrolling airport officers, who chided him and confiscated his kites.
“The police even got here to our home and took two of my kites and burned them, strings and all. After that, my siblings scolded me and informed me to cease. However just lately, I began flying kites once more,” he says.
“It’s fairly harmful. However as soon as your kites have been taken away, you cease being afraid.”
