The 1997 El Ni¿o unfolded as one of the most severe El Ni¿o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events in this century and it coincided with massive biomass burning in the equatorial western Pacific region. To assess the influence on the atmosphere, aircraft observations of trace gases and aerosol were conducted over Kalimantan in Indonesia and Australia. Over Kalimantan in Indonesia, high concentrations of O3, NOx, CO, and aerosols were observed during the flight. Although the aerosol and NOx decreased with altitude, the O3 had the maximum concentration (80.5 ppbv) in the middle layer of the smoke haze and recorded very low concentrations (~20 ppbv) in the lower smoke layer. This feature was not observed in the Australian smoke. We proposed several hypotheses for the low O3 concentration at low levels over Kalimantan. The most likely are lack of solar radiation and losses at the surface of aerosol particles. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union