Garuda Crash
Mar 7th, 2007, in News, by PatungA Garuda plane burst into flames upon landing in Yogyakarta.
A Garuda Indonesia jetliner, flight GA 200, a Boeing 737-400 craft, carrying 140 people, caught fire upon landing at Adisucipto airport in Yogyakarta, Central Java.
One of the passengers was an old friend of this site, Din Syamsuddin, sitting in seat 7D. Din says he feels as if he was saved by the Almighty. antara (Din Syamsuddin’s mother-in-law is reported to have died of a heart attack after hearing that Din had been on board the crashed plane. antara) About 20 other people were not so fortunate and died, including the spokesman for the Australian ambassador in Indonesia, Elizabeth O’Neill. antara
First Air Marshal Benyamin Dandel, the air force commander at Adi Sucipto airport, where the accident took place, says that the plane was travelling too fast and ran off the runway, by 300 metres. antara
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered an investigation to find out whether the plane was sabotaged, while some have complained that this will give the false impression that Indonesia is not safe, in security terms. A parliamentarian in Jakarta, Ngabalin, said that the president’s instruction would cause the image of Indonesia to become poorer, and would encourage foreign interference in the making of security legislation. detik
The plane which crashed, a Boeing 737-400 craft, was built in 1992 and had been in service with Garuda since 2002. It had total flight time of 34,000 hours. After being constructed it was used by Aloha Airlines of Hawaii, and then in 1996 it moved to Star Europe airlines. Later in 1997 it went into service with Jet Airways of India, until 2002. detik
A video of the immediate aftermath of the crash:
A later video of the plane on fire:
Some photos:
April 2nd 2007.
Examination of the plane’s black box has shown that the pilots of the Garuda Airlines passenger jet were arguing moments before it crashed last month at an Indonesian airport, killing 21 people. The airliner’s cockpit audio recordings reveal that the pilot and co-pilot were arguing over their speed and wing flap angles moments before the crash, with the co-pilot advising that the pilot take the plane up and try another approach.
Chief investigator of the crash Tatang Kurniadi said his preliminary findings would point to human error as the cause of the disaster.
I worry that this accident came from the absent-mindedness from the cockpit.
April 5th 2007.
The investigation group from the National Team for Transportation says that the cause of the accident at Adisutjipto airport, Yogyakarta, on March 7th was over speeding when landing, not because of overshooting of the runway. The aircraft’s speed during landing was alleged to be around 150 km’s per hour.
However a police investigator says the problem was overshooting. The aircraft should have landed at a distance of 610 metres but based on the marks on the runway the landing was made at a distance of 704 metres from the total runway length of 2,100 metres. tempo
April 11th 2007.
The Sydney Morning Herald has revealed details of a preliminary report by Indonesia’s Transport Safety Committee on the crash which points to gross human error as the cause. SMH claims the Indonesian authorities are trying to suppress the report. It’s main details are:
- Yogyakarta’s runway does not meet international safety standards.
- The pilots reported a fault in the reverse thrust of one of the engines shortly before take-off.
- Cockpit data recordings revealed no mechanical problems before the landing.
- The weather was calm, contradicting the pilot’s claims of a massive down draught.
- There is no evidence of the pilots arguing in the cockpit before the crash.
- Fire engines and rescue vehicles were unable to reach the crash site quickly and were not properly equipped.
Read on at SMH.
October 23rd 2007. The pilot who flew the plane ignored repeated warnings not to land, a final report by the Indonesian National Transport Safety Committee has found.
The pilot was said to have disregarded fifteen warnings from the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) and landed even though the jet was going at “an excessive airspeed and steep flight path angle resulting in an unstable approach”.
The pilot also employed an instrument landing system approach to the runway in Yogyakarta but did not inform ground control, which had cleared the aircraft for a visual approach. antara
72 Comments on “Garuda Crash”
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Cukurungan says:
Dimp,
Good points but you’re too delusioner while the clear apparent evidence of an in-human transport system in daily KRL jabodetabek where almost millions people have to accept the condition becomes “pepes orang” but never get real attention to solve it. Therefore, it is almost impossible if you think our beloved minister will move to minor concern such as emergency matters in Airport.
If you think by replacing one or two minister it will make any change you must be in deep sleep. Once you get up don’t forget “sikat gigi” -
Wiranto says:
It is the system.
People change but if the system and way of doing things plus the attitude of doing things remain the same, I won’t be surprised we are going to have more and more tragic disasters in the years to come.
The ‘never mind it’s ok’ mentality should and must be avoided.
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Dimp says:
Hi Cuk,
Are you still joking or are you seriously saying that we should just accept that the ministers that we have in office are a bunch of morons?
When something need to be fixed then it should be fixed, we shouldn’t just accept the condition. This is what Indonesians always do, they always say “this is fate”, “what can we do”.
Changing ministers when they obvioulsy don’t have the ability to make things right is one step to make Indonesia advance to the next step.
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Dimp,
In principal I agreed with you but changing or replacing 1 or 2 ministers, it is like putting salt in the sea while the outbreak of the corruption were already anchored deeply in the system.
When I chose Sby I thought he dared to dismantle the whole system but it seemed I was completely wrong and the current anti corruption campaign didn’t touch the real problems, just only better than nothing while the systemic and pandemic problems in the taxes, bea cukai, police, jugde and regulatory bodies department are almost un-touchable.
thanks
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Hi Cuk,
I think everyone was hoping a bit too much for SBY, unfortunately to gain power he made deals with the devils. This has make him impotent runnint the office, sure there has been improvements but they weren’t as much as were promised.
When his second in command is so corrupted and he is too afraid to even mentioned his name. His cabinet is just a mixture of people he made deals with in the beginning. But nevertheless Hatta Rajasa has shown his incompetence too many times, along with him I think SBY should get rid of Aburisal and Yusril to start with. At least when these people are being stripped off their cushy position the other ministers will probably start doing their jobs, the jobs that Indonesian people pay them to do.
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Andrew says:
What’s going on with the accident investigation, why is the sudden dead quiet? I hope this is not another typical Indonesian style-investigation, where they slowly let the matter come to rest…
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Hi Andrew,
I think the latest news is that the black box is being sent to the manufacturer as there is lack of cockpit recording from the initial investigation in Australia. Also there has been a conclusion that the cause of the crash is the excess speed during the landing procedure. There is also talks about the wing-flap that failed to operate during landing, this is another factor causing the excess speed.
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Thanks, Dimp – I admit that I always question the competency and honesty of our government.
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1ndra says:
Didn’t you read news? Maybe the Garuda Crash isn’t on tv anymore but still written in newspaper.
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No I don’t, Kompas doesn’t deliver all over the globe, and being on the other side of the world, the news is long gone from the main page of kompas.com before I get to it.
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Hi Andrew,
I don’t think this Garuda incident will ever be surfaced to the headlines again. As we all know Indonesians have a very short term memory.
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Hi Cuk,
The fact still that the airport emergency team was not capable to rescue the victims. This is still obviously the responsibility of the Minister of Transport. Regardless of what is the cause of the accident he as the person responsible of the transport industry in Indonesia still need to be accountable for. This is not a blame game, rather a show of integrity (one that most Indonesians lack of).