Driver killed in crash had planned earlier flight

Driver killed in crash had planned earlier flight

PERTH, Australia (AFP): An Australian rally driver killed in
Indonesia's worst aviation disaster had promised last week to
return to Australia on an earlier flight, a friend said
yesterday.

Clive Slater, three times West Australian rally champion, was
among 234 people killed when a Garuda Airbus A300 flight crashed
on approach to Medan, North Sumatra, on Friday.

Slater had earlier promised the widow of his former navigator,
Rod van der Straaten, that he would be a pall bearer at his
funeral in Perth on the morning of the tragedy, Australia's rally
legend Ross Dunkerton said.

Van der Straaten, who had driven with Slater for six years,
died on Tuesday after a long illness.

"Clive was supposed to be pall bearer but he never showed up,"
Dunkerton, a six-times national rally champion, said from
Rottnest Island, near Perth.

"It seems to be a bit of a vague area why he wasn't on an
earlier flight. It looks like Garuda has postponed his flight."

Dunkerton said he had flown on the same scheduled service from
Jakarta to Medan six days before the tragedy and had been
frightened by the smoke haze from months of bushfires. He was in
Medan to watch the World Rally Championship concluded on Sunday
Sept. 21.

"We couldn't see the airstrip coming into Medan and I was
thinking: I hope this bloke knows what he's doing," he said.

"Clive wasn't supposed to be on that plane but when your
number's up, your number's up."

Slater, 45, of the Perth suburb of Claremont, traveled
extensively throughout Asia as an advanced driving instructor on
mine sites.

His wife, Barbara, and daughter Alana, 13, were expected to
return to Perth yesterday after Alana competed in the Pacific
Alliance Gymnastics Championships in Colorado.

Slater's body was to be transported back to Jakarta yesterday,
but the thick haze forced the closing of Medan's airport and the
transport was delayed.