As for GA200, the criticism seems misplaced – obviously the NTSC think differently and don’t agree with you or I.
This is the sad bit. Criticism from all parties were thrown... in the wrong direction, and the NTSC and Garuda seems to just let it happen and prefer to bite the bullet rather than answer back with the truth. The truth in this case, ironically, prevents any of them from loosing face and actually show the safety measures in place.
Garuda could have partially defended the pilot based on his past reputation, and in turn, avoid blatant finger pointing and stereotyping by the public and media... It took over a month to get a character defence of the pilot to come to light...
From the SMH...
"The question puzzling investigators is why Komar remained so focused on continuing the landing when established procedures necessitated a go-around. An experienced 737 pilot, Komar has a reputation for observing safety standards, unlike some of his "cowboy" colleagues.?
It took 1 month for that to trickle to the media... GA knows the pilots reputation and could have used it to temper public anger/curiousity over the past 4 weeks.
It claimed the airport runaway also did not meet international safety standards — with a safety run-off a quarter of the recommended length — and that weather was good despite claims by pilots of a serious downdraft.
*bangs head on table again* Oh here we go again!
Anyways, I find it baffling that Garuda isn't actively doing a "
PR Campaign" to defend it's reputation that is, in my opinion, unjustly overattacked. Only this morning, after over 30 days of speculation on pilots "out of control" and whatever else, did they release information that they were already in the process of ironing out whatever remains on flight ops "problems".
It is long suspected that the NTSC would recommend a refocus on "Approach and Landing Accident Reduction/ALAR" program and "Flight Operation Quality Assurance/FOQA"...
GA stated to one of the local media this morning that they have already planned installation of FOQA on their fleet of 48 aircraft, and it was targetted to be implemented this year.
This would have quelled some accusations directed at Garuda regarding safety and training. Accidents attract these kinds of speculation and accusations, and sometimes I wonder if they look at the bigger picture at all. Several press releases from Garuda roughly along the lines of "Hey, we're already doing something about this before the accident happened! The accident shows that such a system is needed for Garuda to prevent future accidents!" would do wonders to the whole public sentiment during the investigations, and show exceptional example amidst...
Experts say poor maintenance, rule-bending and a shortage of properly trained pilots may contribute to the sprawling country's poor aviation-safety record.
*bangs head on table again*
PK-KAR