The Jak Pos,Tuesday, Apri 5 2016
The Transportation Minister is calling for an investigation into why two aircraft collided into each other on the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport runway. The incident caused a Batik Air aircraft's port wing and a TransNusa Air aircraft’s tail section to catch fire at 7:55 p.m. on Monday.
Hadi M Djuraid, spokesperson for Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan, said the minister had just been arriving at the Wasior port, West Papua, when the incident occurred. The minister is accompanying President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to inaugurate the port on Tuesday.
“The transportation minister has received the report from the air transportation director general and ordered some actions. The KNKT [National Transportation Safety Commission] was told to conduct an investigation into the incident,” he said in a press statement on Tuesday.
The minister, Hadi said, also urged an investigation into air traffic control (ATC), state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura (AP) II and the ground-handling company.
“The operating permit of the ground-handling company has been suspended until the KNKT comes up with a recommendation regarding the incident that the company will obey,” he stated.
The incident led to the closure of Halim Perdanakusuma Airport until 12 midnight on Monday. The two airplanes involved in the incident were in custody for further investigation. Batik Air is a full-service airline and a subsidiary of Lion Air.
The transportation minister, according to Hadi, has scolded the AP II president director for not appointing new airport chief two weeks after the former chief was transferred to Kuala Namu airport in Medan (North Sumatra).
The Lion Air Group's full-service Boeing 737 aircraft was about to take off for Makassar, South Sulawesi, before the collision. Both aircraft were then towed to a hangar. It was reported that there were 49 passengers and seven crew members on the Batik Air plane while there was only one person, the pilot, on the TransNusa
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di 5 apr 2016 - 23:49