Four suspects named in Batavia case

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.