Experts look for clues as death toll tops 26
The Jakarta Post, Surakarta/Bandung/Jakarta
Dozens of experts were sifting through the wreckage of passenger plane Lion Air on Wednesday in search of clues in the deadly crash in Surakarta, Central Java as the death toll rose to 26.
Up until Wednesday evening, the plane's black box had not been found, leading authorities and airline staff to theorize that bad weather had caused the accident, the country's worst in the past seven years.
"To confirm our assumption we have to send the black box to either Thailand, South Korea, Australia or the United States for further investigation, which will take at least three months," said Setio Rahardjo, head of the government-sanctioned National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), on Wednesday.
Lion Air spokesman Hasyim Arsal Al Habsi ruled out any human error in the crash, arguing that the pilot was very experienced and the aircraft had passed the standard airworthiness test.
"We suspect bad weather was the cause of the accident as there was a strong tailwind right before the plane skidded off the runway," Hasyim said on Wednesday.
The McDonald-Douglas MD-82 plane, operated by budget carrier Lion Air, skidded off the rain-soaked Adi Sumarno International Airport in Surakarta, Central Java on Tuesday evening, killing 26 people and severely injuring 56 others.
Among the dead were chairman of the House of Representatives Commission VIII Yusuf Muhammad and a 10-month-old baby. Pilot Dwi Mawastoro, two flight attendants and a mechanic were also killed.
The ill-fated aircraft carried 149 passengers and seven crew members.
The plane's front section was badly damaged after the aircraft skidded off the runway and slammed into the metal fence of a nearby cemetery and into the ground. One wing was torn off and there was a gaping hole in the tail.
Bandung Institute of Technology's Aeronautical Department head Bambang Kismono Hadi blamed pilot Dwi for the accident, saying he failed to switch off the engine when the plane skidded off the runway.
"When the plane was skidding, the pilot should have turned off the engines and not used full throttle as if he wanted to take off again. Maybe the pilot did not have clear sight or the brakes did not work," Bambang said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Transportation Hatta Radjasa said that the government would not announce the cause of accident until the NTSB completed its investigation.
"The jet passed the (airworthiness) check on Nov. 11, 2004 and declared safe to fly until Nov. 25, 2005, while the airport runway was 2,600 meters long, which is more than enough to accommodate the MD-82 airplane," Hatta said after meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday.
President Susilo expressed his condolences to families of the victims and called for a thorough examination of airports across the country to determine whether or not they were safe during bad weather.
Due to the heavy downpour, several flights from Surabaya's Juanda International Airport were delayed on Wednesday.
According to data from the Ministry of Transportation, 224 accidents took place upon landing in the country from 1988 to 2003.
In September 1997, a Garuda Airlines Airbus crashed into a jungle-covered mountain slope in Sumatra, killing all 234 people on board. Two months later, a Silk Air Boeing 737 jet crashed into a river on Sumatra, killing 104 people.
In January 2002, a Garuda Boeing 737 made an emergency landing on a river close to Surakarta. The plane remained almost intact and 59 of the 60 people on board survived.