Garuda Captain Arrested
I have mixed emotions about this one. The police here in NZ went after a pilot a number of years ago who crashed a Dash 8 on approach into Palmerston North.
Of course in that case he didn't have the GPWS yelling at him, or the copilot telling him to go around. And he wasn't 100 kts hot, nor did he try landing with approach flap and touch down half way down the runway.
Perhaps there is a point when one has to be held accountable for outright stupidity, if not blatant negligence and disregard for people who have placed the trust of their lives in his hands, and not be able to hide behind the laws regarding the use of accident reports in court. But it does worry me as to where a non-aviation person thinks the line should be drawn.
Comments?
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The pilot of a Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737 that crashed at Yogyakarta Airport killing 21 people last year has been arrested by police on charges that include manslaughter, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
Captain Marwoto Komar, who was arrested on Monday after eight hours of interrogation, was also charged with other offences including violating aviation law and could face more than five years in jail, the pilot's lawyer Muhammad Assegaf said.
The Boeing 737, with 140 people on board, bounced and skidded off the runway in the central Javanese town of Yogyakarta before bursting into flames in a rice field in March, 2007.
Both pilots survived the crash, which happened less than three months after an Adam Air aircraft disappeared with 102 passengers and crew on board off Sulawesi island.
"We think there is no basis for his arrest," Assegaf said, "I believe his arrest has raised a lot of eyebrows among the global aviation community."
Last year a report by the National Transport Safety Commission said the pilot ignored 15 warnings as he descended too rapidly, but declined to attribute the crash to "human error" or "pilot error".
The committee's report said the aircraft "was flown at an excessive air speed and steep flight path angle during the approach and landing, resulting in an unstabilised approach".
Five Australians -- two policemen, a diplomat, a journalist and an aid official -- were among the casualties. They were part of a group that had been accompanying then Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who was not on board the plane, on a visit to Indonesia.
Stephanus Gerardus, who heads Garuda's pilots association, said the arrest was unlawful as it was based on some of the findings published by the National Transport Safety Committee.
"We are not against holding our pilots accountable for their actions," Gerardus said. "But we want everything to go according to international standards, which means the police cannot base their case on the report."
Gerardus said the Indonesian Pilots Association was due to meet a parliamentary transport commission on Tuesday to urge the release of Komar and propose a separate tribunal for aviation offences.
Indonesian officials have previously said that under International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) rules the results of an investigation by a country's transport safety commission could not be used as evidence in court.
Rapid growth in air travel in Indonesia, a country of more than 17,000 islands, has raised questions over whether safety has been compromised and whether the infrastructure and personnel can cope with the increase.
(Reuters)
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