[hide]
A brief explosive eruption began before dawn 5 April, ejecting incandescent tephra and "stones as big as a human head" according to press reports. The ash plume observed the next day had a diameter of 50 km. Up to 25 cm of ash fell on the slopes and ash reached as far as Garut. 2 persons were killed and as many as 31,000 were evacuated, but most of the evacuees returned home within a few hours.
A second explosive eruption occurred during the night of 8-9 April accompanied by a strong earthquake. Hot lahars (mud flows) flowed at 60 km/hour as far as 11 km down the SE flank, buried houses in at least six villages, and destroyed a bridge over the Cikunir River. At least 6 people were killed in the mud flows.
A series of medium to medium-large explosions continued the following months: Pyroclastic flows reached 4-5 km from the crater. Ash falls occured up to 160 km away. On 6 May, hot lapilli fell in the town of Garut and injured two persons. On 17 May, hot lapilli arrived in the town of Tasikmalaya (17 km ESE) and injured four persons and by the 18th, 2 cm of tephra had accumulated there.
During this highly explosive phase (May-October) ash reached a maximum observed altitude of 16.5 km, pitting the windshield of a passing airplane. Ash fell as far away as Central Java ca 300 km to the E. Over the course of the eruption, the 1918 lava dome was almost completely (90%) destroyed and by October, a new 800-m wide crater had formed in its place.
In September, explosions decreased in violence with ash rising "only" to 3-5 km. The activity became more of strombolian-type, apparently because fresher and hotter magma had reached the surface. A new cone grew around the vent inside the crater, ca. 200 m in diameter and 75 m high, dubbed Gunung Jadi.
Activity continued through mid-Jan, but with consistently decreasing intensity.
Strombolian activity occurred from this vent in January.

[hide]
On 24 June 1982, a British Airways 747 aircraft en route to Perth aircraft cruising at 37,000 ft flew through the ash plume of Galunggung volcano. The airplane had 247 passengers and 15 crew on board and all of its 4 enginges failed when ash clogged the turbine blades. Ash was also noticed in the cabin. The aircraft started to free fall and gradually lose altitude. The crew managed to restart engine No. 4 at 13,000 ft altitude, and the other 3 engines in turn. Engine No. 2 continually surged, and needed to be turned off again. An emergency landing was made at Jakarta, Indonesia.