Garuda Pilot Dies At Controls
Pilot Dies on Take-off to Adelaide
“The Advertiser” 31 July 2006
By Michael Owen
The pilot of a plane carrying up to 300 passengers from Bali to Adelaide died during take-off, it has been revealed.
Garuda Indonesia Flight 722 last Tuesday was delayed for almost an hour after it returned to Denpassar Airport following the death.
Adelaide Airport sources yesterday told The Advertiser the co-pilot had to abort the take-off procedure when the chief pilot suffered a heart attack and died at the controls. A apokesman for Garuda, the official airline for Indonesia, yesterday confirmed the pilot’s death.
It was yesterday unclear if the plane was airborne at the time.
The Airbus A330-300 aircraft was preparing to return hundreds of Australian holiday makers from Bali to Adelaide via Melbourne.
Asked if the passengers were made aware of the situation with the plane’s pilot, the spokesman said: “I can’t comment on that. It happened in Denpasar, so it wasn’t in Adelaide, so it just caused a delay out”, he said.
The spokesman said the pilot was Indonesian but declined to give further details. “Obviously it was a very traumatic experience for all of our staff,” he said..
A Melbourne Airport spokeswoman said the flight was scheduled to arrive at 10.30 a.m. but landed at 11.16 a.m.
The flight was further delayed in the departure for Adelaide flying out of Melbourne at 1.02 p.m.
Passengers waiting at Adelaide Airport to fly to Bali that day were delayed by three hours because of the death of the pilot in Denpasar.
An airport spokesman said the matter was “entirely an airline issue”. The Australian Transport Saety Bureau said if such an incident had occurred in Australia, the airline would have been required to submit an incident report.