Aerobatics team grounded over jet fighter crash
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Following a series of accidents involving Indonesia's jet fighters this year, Air Force Chief Marshall Chappy Hakim announced on Tuesday that all members of the Jupiter Blue Aerobatics Team would be grounded, pending examination into the mental state of the pilots and the physical state of the aircraft.
Chappy said a lack of experience and skill -- due to restricted flight training -- among the pilots was to blame for the crashes of three jet fighters this year.
"All (Air Force) pilots have to maintain their skills by developing a training habit that will help them take safe action even in crisis situations," he said.
Following the U.S.-led embargo on the Indonesian Military (TNI) in 1999, the Air Force has had to restrict the number of flying hours to train its officers to 15 hours per month from the standard requirement of 60 hours per month.
Two British-made Hawk MK-53 jet fighters crashed at Iswahyudi Air Base in Madiun, East Java on March 28, when four Air Force pilots belonging to the Jupiter Blue Aerobatics Team were on training flights.
All pilots Capt. Andis Solikhin Machfud and Capt. Weko Nartono Soewarno and their respective co-pilots Maj. Syahbudin Nur Hutasuhut and Capt. Masrial were killed in the accident.
Chappy said the Air Force investigation team had looked into the airworthiness as well as the physical condition of the pilots and their copilots, and the situation surrounding the incident, including the weather at the time of the accident.
"But the team found that none of these factors caused the accident. We (the Air Force) concluded that our pilots were insufficiently trained because they had not done the required flight exercises to maintain their skills," Chappy told a media conference on Tuesday.
Last June 6, an Air Force Hawk MK-209 stationed at Pekanbaru Air Base crash-landed at Polonia Air Base in Medan, North Sumatra. The pilot of the ill-fated jet fighter survived the accident.
The accidents have brought the number of Indonesia's fleet of Hawk jet fighters down to just 40, all of them stationed at Pekanbaru Air Base and Supadio Air Base.
Two of the country's F-16 Falcon jet fighters have also been lost to crashes, one crash-landed in Lumajang, East Java, in 1991 and the other at Halim Perdanakusumah Air Base in 1997, reducing the number of fighters to just 10.
The F-5 squadron consists of 11 planes stationed in Madiun.
"I, as the Air Force chief, apologize for disappointing all those Indonesian people who have supported the Air Force. I hope we will be able to improve our professionalism, so that there will be no more accidents in the future," Chappy said.