Lawmakers Want Merpati’s Wings Clipped
Lawmakers Want Merpati’s Wings Clipped as Investigators Take Black Box
The crash-landing yesterday of a Merpati Nusantara MA60 aircraft has prompted a lawmaker to call for all similar planes to be grounded, as the airline told this newspaper that investigators had taken the plane’s flight data recorder.
“Merpati is too bad to be saved,” National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker Teguh Juwarno said on Tuesday. “The Transportation Ministry should ground all similar planes.”
Teguh, a member of the House of Representatives’ Commission V on transportation, said all routes operated by the state-owned carrier should be assumed by other airlines.
A Merpati Xian MA60 carrying 50 passengers was forced to make a crash-landing at El Tari airport, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara on Monday.
Five people were seriously injured in the accident, while some 20 other passengers suffered light injuries.
A spokesman of Merpati Nusantara, Akhmad Zulfikri, told the Jakarta Globe that Merpati was unable to comment before the findings of an investigation by the National Committee on Transportation Safety (KNKT).
Asked for any preliminary information on the cause of the crash, Akhmad said “I have no idea, we still need to wait for the investigation by the KNKT. The KNKT usually at least takes a month for its investigations.”
Akhmad said that the company was still focusing on the victims.
“But for sure we also want our customers to be loyal flying with us,” he said.
Merpati has something of a checkered safety record.
On August 2, 2009, Flight 9760 crashed in Papua, killing all 15 people on board.
In July 2010, passengers aboard an MA60 in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara were forced to evacuate after a short circuit filled the cabin with smoke.
In February 2011, a Merpati MA60 slid off the runway after attempting to take off from El Tari Airport. No casualties were reported.
On May 7, 2011, Merpati Flight 8968 crashed off the coast of Kaimana district, West Papua, killing all 25 people on board.
The incident again raises questions over the deal involving Merpati’s purchase of 15 Xian MA60s for $14.1 million. It was later discovered that airlines in the Philippines, Ghana and Nepal bought the same type of aircraft for $11 million, while it is understood that the airline considered canceling the deal after finding cracks in one of the plane’s vertical stabilizers.
This prompted China to halt a loan for an electricity development project in Indonesia. In response, former Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu was sent to China to renegotiate the purchase agreement.
Afterward, the government agreed to take a small loan from the China Export-Import Bank — amortized over 15 years with an annual interest rate of 2.5 percent — clearing the way for the deal to go through.
The purchase is currently being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
Lawmakers and aviation officials have questioned the use of planes that are not certified by the United States Federal Aviation Administration.The Indonesian government has argued that such a certification is unnecessary since Chinese transportation authorities have approved the planes.
Martin Hutabarat, a lawmaker with the Great Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) called on the Transportation Ministry to assess the usage of MA60s as passenger airplanes.
“The ministry should evaluate them to prevent dreadful accidents like this,” Martin said on Tuesday.
Elsewhere in the region, a Myanma Airways plane carrying about 60 passengers skidded off the runway at a regional airport on Monday.
Both propellers on the Burmese flag carrier’s MA60 were damaged in the landing at Kawthaung, in the southern region of Taninthari.
In mid-May a Myanma Airways MA60 overshot the end of a runway at an airport in eastern Shan State due to suspected brake failure, injuring two people.
AFP.. 11/06/2013