Jakarta Airport Ceiling Collapses After Heavy Rainfall, No Major Injuries Reported

The ceiling at Boarding Lounge Gate 7 inside Terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport gave way Monday afternoon after days of unrelenting heavy rainfall, sending water crashing onto the passenger waiting area near Gate 7 at approximately 1:45 p.m. local time. Passengers nearby managed to clear the area before the structure fully collapsed.

The disruption lasted about five minutes, after which staff cleaned the area and restricted access. No major injuries were reported. The operational fallout, however, was substantial: 12 flights were diverted, 14 entered holding patterns, 13 executed go-arounds, and one aircraft returned to the apron, bringing the total to 40 affected flight movements.

InJourney Airports, the operator of Soekarno-Hatta, issued a formal public apology on Tuesday after the incident spread widely on social media. Corporate Secretary Group Head Arie Ahsanurrohim said the company regretted the inconvenience caused to passengers, airlines, and business partners specifically because of the roof failure at Gate 7's boarding lounge.

Yudistiawan, assistant deputy for communication and legal affairs at the airport's branch office, confirmed the footage circulating online and said operations personnel responded without delay. "Airport operational officers immediately handled it, including cleaning and restricting the affected area, so that the condition can be immediately controlled," he said. He added that the damaged section was isolated, drained, and tidied up, and that ceiling repairs began immediately.

A 17-second video captured by a passenger showed the sequence unfolding: a small leak at the top of the terminal roof that widened rapidly until the ceiling panels buckled and water poured through, soaking facilities in the waiting area below.

The collapse raises pointed questions about Terminal 3's durability under extreme weather loads. The terminal had its ceiling collapse in 2016 and experienced flood problems in 2017 as well. Terminal 3 was completed in 2016 and was designed as a modern, spacious facility intended to blend durability with aesthetics, featuring steel-framed roofing and glass facades. Repeated structural failures under rain stress suggest that drainage design, not just aesthetic ambition, needs to anchor any future renovation plan.

Soekarno-Hatta sits in Tangerang, Banten, and the region has been battered by extreme weather with high rainfall intensity in recent days. Indonesia's monsoonal and convective storm patterns have long strained public infrastructure, but the increasing severity of rainfall events is compressing the timelines between incidents at facilities like Soekarno-Hatta, which handles tens of millions of passengers annually across international routes connecting Asia, the Middle East, and beyond.

Engineering inspections of the affected section are expected from airport management and national aviation regulators, with investigators likely focused on whether the failure stemmed from water infiltration over time, a drainage capacity shortfall, or a maintenance gap that routine checks failed to catch. For now, Yudistiawan confirmed that airport operations have returned to normal.