Councillors to sue Jatayu for 9-hour delay
Councillors to sue Jatayu for 9-hour delay
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra
At least 10 councillors in North Sumatra province plan to file a
class action suit against a private airline for leaving them and
150 other passengers stranded for nine hours at Polonia Airport.
The members of the North Sumatra Legislative Council said they
would also recommend that the central government revoke the
license of PT Jatayu Airlines over the delay.
The councillors were among 160 passengers, who were to fly to
Jakarta aboard a Jatayu flight from the airport in Medan, North
Sumatra, on Tuesday.
The plane was scheduled to leave for Jakarta at 3:20 p.m., but
delayed its departure until 11:30 p.m.
Many other passengers had to wait even longer for the same
flight as it was originally scheduled for 10 a.m.
Meanwhile, hundreds of passengers, who were to travel by a
Jatayu flight from Jakarta to Medan, also endured a long delay.
"We will sue Jatayu and issue a recommendation for Minister of
Transportation and Telecommunications Agum Gumelar to revoke the
airline's license," Karseno, a member of the council's Commission
V who was one of the stranded passengers, told The Jakarta Post
on Tuesday night.
He argued that the Tuesday flight delay was not the first to
take place involving the airline, and said the company had also
frequently "disappointed" other passengers.
Karseno said that before filing the class action suit against
the airline, the council would summon the Jatayu management to
clarify the prolonged delay.
The other passengers, who were also stranded on Tuesday, would
back the councillors' suit, he said.
Iskandar, one of the passengers, admitted that Jatayu did not
provide the frustrated passengers with meals or other services
during the nine-hour delay.
"We are extremely disappointed with Jatayu over the long
delay. The company did not inform us beforehand. We had to stage
a demonstration first, only then Jatayu gave a response," he
said.
Responding to the case, Jatayu's lawyer Junirwan apologized to
the passengers on behalf of the company, saying the delayed
departure was because of engine trouble.
The plane suffered a "technical problem", forcing the
management to postpone the flight, he said.
"Whatever the technical problem is, we must fix it for the
safety of passengers," Junirwan told a news conference on
Wednesday, without elaborating further.
Asked about the councillors' plan to sue Jatayu, he said the
company could understand.
However, the lawyer said he hoped the disappointed passengers
would cancel the plan, and offered to settle the case amicably
without necessarily disadvantaging one another.
"The management has given them compensation, including Rp
100,000 per passenger," Junirwan said.