Airport reopens after two-day closure

Suherjoko, The Jakarta Post, Semarang

Flights into and out of Ahmad Yani Airport in Semarang, Central Java, returned to normal on Sunday morning after a Garuda plane that skidded off the runway two days ago was lifted from the scene, officials said.

The Boeing 737, arriving from Jakarta, skidded off the runway amid bad weather at around 7:40 p.m. on Friday during landing.

There were no reports of casualties or injuries. But the accident caused panic among its 97 passengers.

The Garuda GA 252 PK-GGC, piloted by Capt. Alamsyah and Nugroho, left Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta Airport at around 6:15 p.m. on the same day. It arrived in Semarang during an electrical storm.

The plane's front wheel was buried in the mud on one side of the runway.

The accident forced authorities to close Ahmad Yani Airport for two days until Sunday morning.

It resumed operations at around 9 a.m. on Sunday after a team from the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) managed to lift the plane from the runway 30 minutes earlier.

A Garuda GA 232 and a Mandala 210, both flying between Semarang and Jakarta, as well as a Merpati M-2726 flying from Semarang to Surabaya were the first three planes to take off from Ahmad Yani Airport after the evacuation.

The local airport authorities had to bring in a crane from Jakarta to lift the plane from the runway as the efforts had been hampered by the condition of the soil there following the heavy rainfall.

The plane is now parked in a hangar, located some 150 meters from the scene.

Cucuk Suryo Suprojo, the air transportation director-general at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications who witnessed the operation, admitted here on Sunday the plane was in no condition to fly after the accident.

He said a team from his office was investigating the exact cause of the accident.

Ahmad Yanir Airport chief executive Nyoman Sukarja said on Saturday that at least 15 flights from Semarang to Jakarta and Surabaya were canceled due to the accident.

The flights were rerouted to Adisumarmo Airport in the neighboring city of Surakarta, he added.

The closure of the Semarang airport prompted the number of rail passengers from the Central Java capital to Surabaya to increase by almost 100 percent on Saturday, railway officials said.

The number of train passengers traveling to Jakarta also rose by around 20 percent on the same day, he added.