Bomb threats force plane to land

JAKARTA (JP): Bomb threats forced a Garuda Indonesia airliner bound for Osaka, Japan to return to Jakarta some two and a half hours after take-off yesterday, an official said.

Garuda spokesman Arif Hartanto said airport operations received several phone calls saying there was a bomb on the Airbus 330. The airline carried 221 passengers, including three children, and 16 crew members.

The GA-782 flight, on a stopover after leaving Denpasar, Bali, departed here 40 minutes after midnight. It landed again at Soekarno-Hatta Airport at 3:05 a.m. West Indonesia Time.

"We didn't dare take the risk, although the bomb threats came from unidentified callers. The order to return was in accordance with the standard procedures," Arif said.

He said the callers demanded that the airplane land before 1:10 a.m. or else it would explode.

A police search of the plane which lasted until 9:00 a.m. found no evidence of a bomb.

Three passengers suffered minor injuries during an emergency evacuation of the plane. "All the passengers were so panicked that they pushed one another to get through the emergency doors," said Arif.

He said the three injured passengers were rushed to Atma Jaya Hospital, North Jakarta, but were able to leave a few hours later.

All passengers were given accommodations at Hotel Horison, in the Ancol coastal resort of North Jakarta, Hotel Jayakarta on Jl. Hayam Wuruk, West Jakarta or Hotel Aspac near the airport pending their departure with the same aircraft yesterday evening.

Arif refused to speculate that the bomb threat, the second since 1995, was linked to a terrorist movement, saying that the case was now being investigated by the city police.

Chief of detectives Col. Gories Mere and spokesman for the city police Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang were unavailable for comment yesterday.

Arif said Garuda did not plan to impose extra checking measures on its fleet following the bomb threats, adding that present procedures were already deemed sufficient.

Another bomb threat caused a Boeing 747-200 leaving Munich, Germany for Medan, North Sumatra to make an unscheduled stopover at Bucharest's Otopeni Airport on Sept. 29, 1995.

The airplane, with 388 passengers and 21 air crew on board, left Bucharest after a thorough bomb check and arrived in Medan with all passengers safe the next day. (amd)