Pilots call for truce over Garuda crash
BRUSSELS: Indonesian authorities have been urged to suspend a criminal investigation into the Garuda Indonesia air disaster that killed 21 people in March.
The world’s peak pilots’ body said the focus should be on identifying the underlying reasons for a spate of deadly accidents that have plagued civil aviation in Indonesia.
Investigators have said the captain of a Garuda Boeing 737-400 that crashed in March while attempting to land at Yogyakarta airport had ignored repeated warnings that he was approaching the runway at almost double the normal landing speed.
Indonesian police have said Capt. Marwoto is now a suspect and may face manslaughter charges. If found guilty, he could face up to five years in jail.
A statement issued by the London-based International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) noted, “The International Civil Aviation Organisation has long determined that inappropriate prosecution can often be an impediment to identifying system failures”.
The federation said it backed its member association in Indonesia in calling for the police probe to be called off.
“As with any other complex, technical profession, errors and event chains in piloting are seldom simple, requiring detailed examination by fully qualified professionals to understand all underlying factors leading to a particular failure.
“IFALPA agrees with APG (the Indonesian pilots’ association) that such detailed examination does not appear to have been done in the case of the Garuda accident at Yogyakarta on 7 March of this year.”
IFLAPA points to an address on Air Safety Reform in Indonesia given to the Safe Skies 2007 Conference on November 2 by the director general civil aviation at the Indonesian Ministry of Transportation, Budhi Suyitno.
He said, “a key part of our work is to change from a culture of reaction and blame to open reporting and a transparent safety system based on ICAO guidelines.”
IFLAPA added, “The federation salutes Mr. Suyitno’s assertions and stands ready to assist in any way it can to improve air safety in Indonesia and reminds the government that a full and complete technical investigation is the only accepted means of isolating and preventing systemic failures, failures which can lead to accidents and that therefore, any prosecution should be suspended until the a full report is published and even then should only proceed in accordance with ICAO guidelines.”
Investigators said the pilot had made a steep approach and then hit the runway at 408 kph – 160 kph faster than the safe touchdown speed.
The Boeing skidded off the runway before bursting into flames.
The pilot, co-pilot and 117 others survived the crash.
It was the third accident this year involving a commercial aircraft in Indonesia,
Ian Jarrett
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