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Deaf Ears On Runway Before Fatal Plane Crash In Papua
Banjir Ambarita | November 24, 2011

A local resident strayed too close to a remote Papuan highlands runway, causing an aborted landing and plane crash that took the life of the co-pilot and left the pilot in critical condition. (Antara Photo) A local resident strayed too close to a remote Papuan highlands runway, causing an aborted landing and plane crash that took the life of the co-pilot and left the pilot in critical condition. (Antara Photo)
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bulepilot
12:58pm Nov 29, 2011

How can the Jakarta Globe continue to leave this article on the site when it contains such terrible inaccuracies? Any reputable Media Organisation would be quick to make corrections so as not to cause unnecessary worry amongst friends and relative let alone uphold their own standards.

The aircraft did not explode and the pilot did not suffer burns. Surely given other reports a simple check of the facts by the reporter would have precluded Jakarta Globe from embarrassing itself.

Kesiangan
9:15pm Nov 25, 2011

Wait for those 230 Lion Air planes.


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Jayapura. A local resident strayed too close to a remote Papuan highlands runway, causing an aborted landing and plane crash that took the life of the co-pilot and left the pilot in critical condition.

Papua Police spokesman Kombes Wachyono said the Cessna Caravan airplane, operated by regional airline Susi Air, left Nabire on Papua’s north coast at 8:55 a.m. local time on Wednesday. It was expected to land at Intan Jaya’s capital of Sugapa at 9:40 a.m.

“As it was readying to land, there was a resident on the side of the landing strip, so to avoid a collision, the plane climbed again, and as it turned around to the left, it hit Wabu mountain.”

The Cessna exploded on contact with the mountain, he said.

Albert Citores, the Spanish co-pilot, was reported killed. The New Zealand pilot, Jesse Becker, survived but was in critical condition with burns over much of his body. Police said he had been evacuated to Freeport’s medical facilities in Tembagapura.

There were no passengers on the aircraft, which was delivering supplies to the remote area.

According to the Intan Jaya district secretary, David Setiawan, the person walking on the air strip was hearing-impaired.

“From the information I have received, the resident who was crossing the strip was deaf, so perhaps he did not hear the engine noise of the approaching airplane as it prepared to land,” David said.

The airstrip is very basic and lacks basic infrastructure, he said, so people commonly cross the runway on foot.

“The air field is a pioneer strip, so there’s no supporting facilities, there’s no fence, terminal or control tower, and so on.”

The secretary said that there was a staffer assigned to oversee the airstrip, but that the security system was “still manual.”

Many remote highlands areas of Papua can only be reached on foot or by air.

“There’s no other transportation, only small planes connect one district to another,” David said. “So when there’s an accident like this, we’re put in a bad spot — how can we provide services to the residents if the airline halts its flights?”

The crash is the latest in a string of aviation accidents to hit Indonesia, and the second in three months involving Susi Air.

A Susi Air Cessna crashed in mountainous terrain in Papua on Sept. 9, killing the pilot and co-pilot. No passengers were on board.

On Wednesday, the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) abandoned a search for another Cessna that went down on a training flight near Cirebon, West Java, last week. A pilot and two students from the Nusa Flying International school in Jakarta are missing and feared dead.

Additional reporting Camelia Pasandaran