Batavia Air Flight Forced to Land in Emergency

[jetjockey696]

July 15, 2010 Jakarta Globe

A Batavia Air flight heading to Jakarta from Pekanbaru, Riau on Thursday evening made an emergency landing at the Sultan Syarif Kasim Airport.

Passengers of the plane were in a panic upon hearing two loud bangs, according to the Detik.com news portal.

“During take off the engine sounded really rough, and five minutes later there was a quite a loud bang," said Amir Husein, one of the passengers. "Everyone was screaming. Passengers panicked 15 minutes later upon hearing another bang near the left wing of the plane, which began to emit fire.”

Amir added that the pilot did not explain what the “explosions” were about, only that there were technical disturbances and as a result, the flight crew would conduct an emergency landing.

“The pilot said that we had to emergency land at Pekanbaru, and because of that we had to finish off the fuel by circling from 6.45 p.m. to 8.45 p.m.,” said Amir.

Passengers were angry, because the air conditioning had also been turned off. “But as soon as we landed, all the passengers clapped their hands,” added Amir.

[rampstalker]

well my freind its a fact its only the skills of the flight crews that have so far averted any incidents from being of a nature that will result in death or injury.
so carry on guys, Oh and I wish this lot would improve the english skills, scares me every time I fly with em.

[piratepete]

I suspect the same may be true of other Indon airlines, but I can assure you from my own experience of working at BTV, they have very low standards of training, no SOPs are adhered to, MTCE is dodgy to say the least.It all starts at the top with the DFO Captain(?) Noer Effendy.He will gladly tell you how he has 24000 hours as TRE on every type in the world etc, test pilot etc etc, then demonstrate that this is a load of crap, once you see him operate the SIM panel.
On one flight I was on, the sidestick went "floppy" ie did not work, in manual flight at 1500 ft on approach! To my horror, the Trg Capt said "oh dont worry..it will come back in a few seconds, its been like that for 12 months now on this aircraft!"....what more can I say?

[rampstalker]

now that is more than scary, and there was me thinking that the Airbus was a safer product, in the wrong hands its not.

A buddy of mine has been poking around in the airline for the leasers and he reports its a shocking mess from the top down. SIA and QF will still get my money when I fly for sure. inside Indo its a hands tied thing, what choice is there. Ive flown Lion and the aircraft were newish NGs but some how dont instill confidence when I listen to the pre take off brief being muttered and rushed through.

Oh well I can turn these assignments down but for the $, just hope head office can assign me a safer regeon.