Aerobatics team grounded over jet fighter crash

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.