Indonesian Airliner Carrying 163 Skids off Runway
A plane carrying 163 passengers and crew on a domestic flight skidded off the runway in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province on Friday but no one was hurt, the Transportation Ministry said.
The Boeing 737-400 aircraft of regional Indonesian carrier Sriwijaya Air landed at the provincial capital of Pontianak in the early afternoon before leaving the runway, Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said.
“After it touched down and was rolling it was tilting to the right and skidded off the runway,” he said.
“All passengers and crew are safe,” Ervan added. “The nosewheel is broken and the landing gear also went off into the soft soil, so the engine also is touching the ground,” he added.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known, but local reports said it was raining and windy when the plane came in to land on a domestic flight from Jakarta.
Indonesia, which relies heavily on air links to connect its sprawling archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, has one of Asia’s worst air safety records.
Agence France-Presse... June 01, 2012