Four suspects named in Batavia case

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar

South Sulawesi Police on Tuesday named four suspects allegedly responsible for supplying adulterated fuel that caused a Batavia Air aircraft fail to take off from Hasanuddin International Airport in Makassar in October.

Chief of South Sulawesi Police, Insp. Gen. Saleh Saad, said on Tuesday that the four suspects were employees of state oil and gas company PT Pertamina assigned to the airport's fuel station. They are now in police custody.

The aircraft failed to take off allegedly because the Avtur airplane fuel bought from the company had been mixed with water.

"After examining the witnesses, including an expert witness on mining, we determined the four as suspects because they are the ones responsible. They're now under arrest. But it's possible the number of suspects will increase as the investigation is still in progress," Saleh said.

Previously, Batavia Air filed a complaint with Pertamina and the Ministry of Transportation alleging that the fuel pumped into one of its aircraft at Makassar had been mixed with water. The company reported it had found a significant amount of water in the aircraft's tanks after it was filled with jet fuel supplied by Pertamina.

Pertamina denied the allegations, saying it had standard operating procedures for checking the condition and quality of fuel before it was pumped into an aircraft's tanks.

Pertamina submitted a request for an investigation by the two ministries -- the transportation ministry and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, along with the National Police forensic laboratory and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Saleh said the four arrested were suspected of violating standard operational procedures while refueling the Boeing 747 aircraft on Oct. 19, causing it to fail to take off after a transit from Jakarta on its way to Biak in Papua province. There were no casualties in the incident.

However, Saleh could not confirm whether the Avtur had been mixed with water, saying police had still to examine the results of forensic lab investigations into the Avtur sample.

"Until now we can't be sure whether it's true that the Avtur used by Batavia Air at that time also contains water because the forensic lab is still examining the fuel sample," Saleh said.

He said the police were still focussing their investigation into the failure of the suspects to follow standard operational procedures for refueling.

"Currently, we have concluded that there's been a violation of procedures in the refueling of the Batavia Air aircraft. There were several standard procedures, like checking the Avtur before refueling, that were not followed," he said.

Meanwhile, Pertamina's public relations head, Julian Iskandar Muda, denied that the Avtur had been mixed with water.

"How could the Avtur be mixed with water? Besides, before refueling, the Avtur was examined, and the examination and refueling processes are always witnessed by airline officials, including Batavia Air," Julian said.

He said it was the first such case found at Hasanuddin Airport, and Pertamina regularly supplied Avtur to other airlines with no trouble.