The Jakarta Post, January 18, 2007
Two planes make emergency U-turns
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Two Boeing jets operated by private carriers made separate emergency returns to
airports shortly after takeoff Wednesday for "technical reasons", airline officials said.
A Mandala Airlines plane that left Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta Airport for Ambon in
Maluku took off and returned to the airport twice -- at 5 a.m. and later at 6:40 a.m. --
Mandala spokesman Alex Widjojo said.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a Batavia Air plane returned to Manado in North
Sulawesi, just 20 minutes into its flight to Jakarta, an official at the airport said.
Alex said the Mandala plane, a Boeing 737, returned twice to the airport because a
cockpit warning light turned on, indicating the aircraft's wheel doors were
malfunctioning.
"For us, the safety of our passengers and the conditions of our planes are a must;
they cannot be negotiated. Our pilots have acted professionally and carefully by
choosing to land rather than continuing the journey," Alex said in a statement sent to
The Jakarta Post.
After being thoroughly checked by technicians, the flight was eventually canceled and
the 112 passengers were rescheduled on another Mandala flight, he said.
The Batavia aircraft took off at 10:50 a.m. to Ambon with 91 passengers on board, the
Manado airport official told AFP.
"It left at 23:23 GMT and returned at 23:43," he said.
A Batavia spokesman, Zacky, said there was "a problem with the gear" but did not
elaborate.
Soekarno-Hatta Airport administrator Bambang Cahyono later confirmed the Mandala
aircraft made a second attempt to fly but returned to the airport because its landing
gear indicator stayed lit.
Another Mandala plane was also grounded after air safety officials reported that "the
navigation system was not running well".
On Tuesday evening, Cahyono said inspectors also grounded a Batavia Air aircraft
because of a malfunction in its "power management circuit".
All three aircraft would be grounded until the malfunctions were repaired, he said.
The latest incidents come in the wake of a string of bad sea, air and rail accidents,
which have prompted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to form a team to
evaluate and improve transport safety.
The accidents began on Dec. 29, when a passenger ferry with some 600 people on
board sank in rough seas off the coast of Java. An estimated 400 people are still
missing and presumed drowned.
Days later, an Adam Air plane vanished near Sulawesi island on Jan. 1 with 102
people on board. On Tuesday, a overloaded train carriage derailed and plunged off a
bridge into a dry riverbed, killing five and injuring around 100 others.
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