`Body landing' not part of the exercise

JAKARTA (JP): A CN-235 training plane belonging to the state- owned Merpati Nusantara succeeded in landing safely without its wheels in Denpasar, Bali, but airline officials stressed that this was not part of the training.

The plane was forced to make a "bodylanding" and was dragged along the runway of the Ngurah Rai airport for about 1,000 meters before it came to a screeching halt on Wednesday, according to the Antara news agency.

Thee three people on board were immediately evacuated and the airport fire team quickly sprayed foam on the plane to prevent it from catching fire.

On board were pilot Ali Taufik who was also the flying instructor, and two students, Djunaedi and Soesyanto.

The 35-seat plane, which was used by the airline to train its pilots, had taken off and landed earlier that day without incident.

Because of the accident, the airport was shut down for almost six hours until nearly midnight on Wednesday to allow workers to remove the body of the CN-235, a plane built by the state manufacturer IPTN.

Thee plane's body remained intact and suffered only a few scratches, according to Barnabas Laban, who heads Merpati's operation in Denpasar.

"I'm quite impressed by the IPTN product," he quipped.

The airline is now investigating what caused the failure in the landing gear, he added. (emb)