`Body landing' not part of the exercise

`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)