•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

All airlines operating small aircraft in Papua will have to install a real-time tracking system in their aircraft as part of a government program to reduce accidents in the province, Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said on Tuesday.

Freddy said the ministry was finishing a draft regulation that would be applicable to all civil airlines in Papua, where accidents often occur due to its mountainous topography.

“The regulation will be issued and applied immediately,” he said, adding that it applied to both commercial and charter airlines.

The system, called Automated Flight Following [AFF], tracks the location and altitude of an aircraft, enabling carriers and air-traffic controllers to know exactly where their planes are.

The equipment was likely to cost around $5,000 for each aircraft, Freddy said, adding that there was no excuse for airlines not to install it considering the number of aviation accidents in Papua.

Herry Bhakti Singayuda, director general of civil aviation at the Ministry of Transportation, said that due to its mountainous topography and extreme weather, Papua needed such a special regulation.

Herry said, however, that the regulation would apply only to smaller aircraft flying short routes within the province, as they would be flying at low altitudes.

“There is no problem for jumbo jets flying from Jakarta or Denpasar because they can fly through the clouds and mountains,” he said, adding that the regulation would apply to around 10 airlines in Papua.

Herry said that if the airlines failed to meet the requirements, their license to serve the routes would be reevaluated.

Freddy said that AFF would operate as a backup tool to the Emergency Locator Beacon, which automatically sends a signal whenever a plane crashes.

“So even if a plane crashes, we will know its location immediately and therefore have the possibility to limit the number of victims,” he said.

Eko Roesni, secretary general of aviation watchdog People for Indonesia Air Transportation, said that the regulation was good for air safety in Papua, and should be applied across the country.

“Other countries have installed it on most of their aircraft,” he said.

Papua has become notorious for air accidents in the recent years. In 2009, at least 23 people were killed in plane crashes, mostly due to limited visibility.

The worst was in August, when a Merpati Airlines Twin Otter plane crashed into a mountain near the border of Papua New Guinea, killing all 15 on board.