Galunggung

Galunggung erupted in 1982, and on 24 June a British Airways Boeing 747 flew into its ash cloud at night over the Indian Ocean; all four engines flamed out, the aircraft glided for some sixteen minutes and descended around seven thousand metres before the crew restarted three engines and landed at Jakarta with a windscreen sandblasted opaque. The captain's announcement to the passengers is quoted in aviation training to this day, and the incident, with a similar one over Alaska, established volcanic ash as a flight hazard and led to the international network of volcanic ash advisory centres. The volcano now has a crater lake reached by a stair of some six hundred and twenty steps, hot springs at the base, and the Ten Thousand Hills, a field of hummocks left by a much older collapse.

What you actually see

• A crater lake - reached by a stair of some 620 steps from the base.
• The 1982 ash story - the eruption that stopped a 747's engines in flight.
• Hot springs at the foot - the bathing pools below the climb.
• The Ten Thousand Hills - hummocks from a much older collapse of the volcano.

When to go

May to September; mornings before the cloud. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The stair is steep and hot. It is an active volcano and closes on alert. Facilities are basic. The crater lake is small and the effort-to-view ratio disappoints some visitors.

Nearby

Tasikmalaya is east; Garut and Papandayan are north-west.