Garuda plane forced to make emergency landing in Bali<\/p>\n
Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar<\/p>\n
A packed Garuda plane traveling from Bali to Brisbane, Australia,
\nwas forced to make an emergency landing because of engine
\ntrouble, a senior airline official said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Airbus aircraft had been flying for approximately 90
\nminutes when the pilot detected a problem with the aircraft's
\nleft engine and quickly decided to return to Ngurah Rai
\nInternational Airport in Bali early on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\"The engine trouble forced the pilot to return to Ngurah Rai
\nairport,\" said Totok Hermawan, Garuda's Ngurah Rai station
\nmanager.<\/p>\n
Totok said that as the aircraft was flying over the Indian
\nOcean, the pilot, Noor Wahyudi, detected a vibration in the
\nplane's left engine and returned to Bali.<\/p>\n
\"That is standard procedure at our airline. If the pilot
\ndetects something that could put the safety of passengers at
\nstake, he or she has to land the aircraft. At dawn on Wednesday,
\nthe pilot did the right thing, especially because the aircraft at
\nthat time had not reached the area categorized as the point of no
\nreturn,\" said Totok.<\/p>\n
The Airbus 330 aircraft with a seating capacity of 42 in
\nbusiness class and 252 in economy class was carrying 37
\npassengers in business class and 251 passengers in economy class.<\/p>\n
None of the passengers were injured in the incident, which
\noccurred a week after the Mandala plane crash in the North
\nSumatra capital Medan that killed 149 people, including some on
\nthe ground.<\/p>\n
After landing in Bali, the passengers, mostly foreign
\ntourists, were put up at the Sanur Beach Hotel and the Bali
\nGardenia Hotel. The passengers were scheduled to fly to Brisbane
\non Wednesday night aboard a different Garuda aircraft. The plane
\ninvolved in the incident is being repaired at Ngurah Rai airport.<\/p>\n
Separately, following the Mandala plane crash the management
\nof Ngurah Rai airport has instituted random safety checks of
\naircraft landing at the airport, a gateway to the resort island
\nof Bali.<\/p>\n
The checks are being carried out by a team of 10 people led by
\nairport official Djoko Warsito. The team checks the maintenance
\nrecords of planes and inspects the cockpits. In the past three
\ndays, the team has checked nine commercial aircraft, all from
\ndomestic airlines, said Muhammad Fuschad, a station manager at
\nNgurah Rai.<\/p>\n
The random checks are viewed by the airport as necessary
\nfollowing reports that several aircraft made emergency landings
\nin the wake of the Mandala crash.<\/p>\n
A day after the Mandala crash, a Garuda Indonesia airliner
\nflying from Medan made an emergency landing at Sultan Syarif
\nKasim II Airport in Pekanbaru, Riau, due to a fuel indicator
\nproblem. In another incident the same day, a Mandala aircraft
\nreturned to Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Jakarta after 10 minutes in
\nthe air due to problems with the landing gear warning lamps. No
\none was injured in the incidents.<\/p>\n
Separately, the director of Flight Feasibility Certification
\nat the Ministry of Transportation, Iing Iskandar, confirmed on
\nWednesday a report that he would be immediately replaced.<\/p>\n
However, he denied the replacement had anything to do with the
\nseries of recent airplane accidents.<\/p>\n
\"The replacement is a regular rotation,\" he said, as quoted by
\nAntara news agency.<\/p>\n
He said he was due to be moved after eight years as the
\ndirector of Flight Feasibility Certification at the ministry.<\/p>",
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