Hummmm....
Incident: Thomas Cook Scandinavia A333 near Batam on Oct 28th 2010, entered volcanic ash cloud
An Thomas Cook Scandinavia Airbus A330-300 on behalf of Garuda, registration OY-VKG performing Hajj flight GA-6010 from Solo City to Batam (Indonesia) with 383 pilgrims and further on to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), was about 30 minutes into the flight when a sulphuric smell was noticed in the cabin later followed by some slightly abnormal engine indications in the cockpit. The airplane continued to Batam for a safe landing on schedule.
The airplane was not able to continue to Jeddah on schedule due to ashes ingested by the engines while the aircraft obviously entered an ash cloud of Indonesia's Merapi volcano.
A replacement Iberworld Airbus A330-300 registration EC-JHP reached Jeddah with a delay of 21 hours.
Solo City is located about 18nm east of currently active volcano Merapi, which had erupted on Oct 26th. Darwin's VAAC (Volcanic Ash Advisory Center) forecasted volcanic ash up to FL300 following that eruption. Batam is located about 635nm northwest of Merapi volcano.
The Airbus A330-300 is capable of seating 440 passengers in high density single class configuration. Garuda has leased in a number of A330-300s from Iberworld and Thomas Cook Scandinavia for the Hajj flights.