JAKARTA, 13 October 2006 - A passenger jet skidded off the runway upon landing in thick haze in Kalimantan on Tuesday as forest fires in the country spread a pall of smoke around the region. A Boeing 737-200 jetliner skidded 50 meters (164 ft) off the runway in the town of Tarakan in East Kalimantan province on Borneo island.

"The visibility for the pilot was clouded by the haze," an airport official told Reuters, adding all 110 passengers of the Mandala airline plane survived the incident without major injuries. The haze, caused mostly by farmers and plantation owners setting fires to clear land, has forced many flights to be delayed or canceled in Indonesia in recent days, with five cancellations in the Sumatra island province of Jambi on Tuesday.

"The visibility is 500 meters," said Olan Simanjuntak, a spokesman for Sultan Thaha airport in Jambi. "We are very irritated (by the haze). Officials here are using masks." Purwasto, a senior official in Indonesia's Environment Ministry, told Reuters that the PSI reading was "more than 100" in the worst-hit parts of the country. "It is dangerous for human health," said Purwasto, who like many Indonesians uses one name.

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