MALEM Sambat Kaban should have reached Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Jakarta, at 14:30 hours on Monday last week. A colleague was waiting at the arrivals terminal. But nobody could help it as flight GA 239 carrying him from Achmad Yani Airport, Semarang, was two hours behind its departure scheduled for 13:00.

Kaban and his wife, Nurmala Dewi, planned to return to Jakarta that afternoon after visiting victims of Merapi’s eruption in Klaten, Central