Garuda Pilot Jailed
 

An Indonesian pilot whose plane crashed, killing 21 people including five Australians, has been jailed for two years.
Marwoto Komar's Boeing 737 slammed onto the runway at Yogyakarta airport, careered into a field and burst into flames on March 7, 2007.
Investigators say Komar ignored a series of warnings not to land the plane as he brought it in at twice the safe speed.
Despite initially blaming the disaster on strong winds, Komar during his trial sought to blame problems with the plane's steering and stabilisation systems.
But prosecutors - who wanted Komar jailed for four years - say there is no evidence to support his claim that the plane malfunctioned.
Prosecutors abandoned a charge that Komar deliberately crashed the Garuda Indonesia plane, conceding they did not have enough evidence to back it up.
If proved, that charge could have seen Komar jailed for life.
Komar's pilot licence was suspended and he was sacked by Garuda after the crash, which was one of several fatal Indonesian airline crashes in 2007.
The Australians killed in the crash were diplomat Liz O'Neill, AusAID official Allison Sudradjat, Australian Federal Police officers Brice Steele and Mark Scott, and Australian Financial Review journalist Morgan Mellish.
Five other Australians survived the crash, some of whom were seriously injured.
Despite some improvements since 2007, Indonesia, which relies heavily on air links across the archipelago, still has one of Asia's worst air safety records.

He got off very lightly

Indonesian "Justice" says he will be out in 6 months. :rolleyes::ugh:

Okay I cannot shut my mouth over this one.

You blow up a pub and a restaurant and get off lightly (apart from the ones that got shot - that's still a 'light' punishment in my book.

You land a B734 @ almost 230 kts and get 2 years.

You smuggle a boggie board in a 'hemp made cover' and you get 20+ years.

What a f****d up country it is.

I find it hard to believe that someone as negligent as this has been sentenced to only two years.
Unbelievable, quite unbelievable.
If he'd been a terrorist he would have received the death sentence, but being qualified grants him a lighter sentence.
Astounding!

There has been a great deal of pressure around this decision. You have to remember that there is unfortunately a different mindset, absolutely wrong but slowly (glacial pace really) changing. I have met a Pilot who was extremely proud of his 'battle scares', they were from a Twin Otter crash but still indicative of the attitude that permeates the industry.

Komar is still blaming faulty flaps, so what? He should have gone around or diverted to a longer runway if that was the case. A colleague was on a flight a few months ago that nearly over-ran the runway because they couldn't get full landing flaps. They elected to continue a landing at the destination with a 1.5km or more shorter runway and floated down the runway nearly overrunning They could have returned to the departure airport 45 minutes away with a much longer runway.

Have seen a morbidly funny photo of a Lion Air MD flight deck with a sticker on the captain's side saying "Not Stabilised? Go-around".

Here's hoping this sentence sends a message.

Screwed?
 

As sad as it sounds, the Indonesian concept of losing a life is not the same as ours. Call it screwed up (it is!) or call it local culture, but that is not going to change anytime soon.

The only thing to change the Indonesian system is someone at the top telling the rest of them that it is wrong and they need to pick up their game.....I am still waiting and suspect I will be waiting for someone at the top for a long time to say this on air safety.... and all other matters in Indonesia that need direction from the top!:ugh:

I could NOT agree more with beaver_rotate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Garuda are banned in Europe. Why the hell are they not banned here. Remember all the events that occured at Perth recently? From the 2 go arounds that required ATC intervention, and the other disappearing to the east out of radar coverage?!?! Why are they not banned here? Oh, it's the Indo's.. don't want to upset the indo's... lets give them money.

Interesting sticker. Not a bad idea in every flight deck.

Double standards
 

Last January, the Indonesian authorities sentenced an Aussie pilot to 2-3 years in prison because he landed on a province of Papua without the required VISA.

Aussies jailed over joy flight

Today, the convicted Garuda pilot got 2 years in jail.

Something is wrong here.

This makes my blood boil.:ugh:

All the press reports blame the Captain, saying he ignored automated alerts and warnings from the First Officer. But surely the First Officer is just as culpable as the Captain in this instance. In that he knowingly allowed the Captain to land in a grossly dangerous condition.

Maybe a stint in jail for him also would go a little to breaking down that "loss of face" attitude that has no place in aviation.

Maybe some mandatory training in "Taking Over" control of the aircraft from the captain wouldn't go astray.

It's called FACE.
Mustn't lose it.
Most Asians are that way. Pretend it ain't happening.

Sentences for us/them... Blame the Dutch.
They were such bast*rds for so many years. "It's their turn now".

Geez, I copped an earful of Ben Sandilands on 2CC in Canberra this morning and did he slam into Garuda and the government. Says the airline should have been in the dock, as well as the pilot, and attacked the Australian government for concentrating on the pilots when it wasn't game to deal with the crappy state of airline safety in Jakarta and the responsibility of the airline for standards.

Ultergra AND check out 200807831

Basically they busted altitude, got a little disorientated and had to do go around in Darwin. Sure it's probably human factors.

They used to park in the next bay to us almost every morning in Darwin in the wee hours in a 737-400. Let's just say you wouldn't have gotten me on one of their planes, and this is pre Yogyakarta around 2004...

A fair question but the answers are not necessarily logical.

Apart from the political decision of placing a ban on the airlines of a near and powerful neighbour, there's the consideration of some form of reciprocity. A ban on the use of Indonesian airports probably wouldn't cause much of a ripple (except for the loss of adequate airports for ETOPs operations), but the major impact on Australian aircraft woulkd be the loss of overflight rights - flights cannot avoid Indonesian airspace on routes to Asia and Europe without major impact. Think about it!

Easy on there Kenny....

I think if you read the post by Ultergra again ,you'll find that his question is a rhetorical one ....

If Garuda flights are banned in Europe then there is obviously a problem with Garuda ops from the EU governments point of view and Ultergra is saying that Australia should be concerned with them as well....Think about it!

Obviously,The EU don't have as many concerns regarding Indonesia as we do otherwise we would be doing the same.Sometimes it is more prudent to work with someone instead of going head to head.

It is ridiculous by our standards that someone (if guilty) receives 20 years plus for a bag with an illegal substance but someone who kills because of incompetence gets 2 years.....

Culture has a lot to do with it but so does the home ground advantage....I wonder what the outcome would have been if the pilot had not been a muslim and an Indonesian but instead an Australian christian and maybe a female on top of that...???

First Officer Culpability
 

MrWooby suggests the First Officer should be given a gaol sentence because he was culpable "in that he knowingly allowed the Captain to land in a grossly dangerous condition". He also suggests the F/O should have "Taken Over" control of the aircraft. Just how do you suggest the F/O should have taken control MrWooby? Maybe he could have belted the Captain over the head with a blunt object, or maybe wrestled with the Captain on the controls so that neither had control and everyone perished? The F/O did all he could reasonably have been expected to do in this instance, by expressing his concern with the continued approach and landing, backed up by the aural warnings generated by the aircraft systems. That the Captain ignored both the F/O's concerns, and the automated warnings, is why the Captain was on trial and not the F/O. Pity is the Captain received a mere slap on the wrist and the families of those killed have life sentences.

They should have shot the bloody monkey. :mad:

and now an Indo Air force F27 down...:ugh::=..these guys are crazy...

A first Officer in Garuda would rather rape the Captains wife than mention those dreaded words "Captain you must listen to me" in their culture and religion he would be committing a cardinal sin to take over the controls of the A/C without permission from the Captain. This is a tragedy in itself, as we now all know. I doubt if it will change anything, as it is virtually impossible to seperate state, religion and culture no matter what your job, hard for us to understand, and you have to wonder with all the clackers going nuts, what he was thinking, but loss of face must have had something to do with it, and now with their pilot training going to Bali, they lose the chance of their young pilots understanding that safety and training comes before religion, state or culture, so expect more of the same.