Garuda crew apologize over Ecstasy scandal

JAKARTA (JP): An organization representing the air crew of Garuda Indonesia has apologized to the management and passengers for the alleged involvement of a colleague in trafficking Ecstasy on flight GA 987 from Amsterdam to Jakarta on Sept. 29.

Shadrach M.N., the chairman of Garuda's Communication Forum, said yesterday that the forum's members were shocked and "deeply regretted" the incident in which a fellow pilot, identified as Mohammad Said, is suspected of trafficking 8,000 Ecstasy pills.

In a press release Shadrach said Garuda's air crews hoped that planned tightened supervision of pilots in airports following the incident at Schipol airport, "will not be exaggerated."

This, he said, is in view of an international convention ruling air transport which confers certain privileges on pilots.

"The scrutinizing procedures toward pilots are already far more strict than procedures toward passengers," Shadrach said.

The Forum further expressed its appreciation of the protest launched by the Indonesian embassy in the Netherlands over the police treatment of MS, "which was beyond tolerance." It also called on all air crew "to maintain professionalism... and help the government eliminate the trafficking of commodities which can destroy the nation's morality and its young generation." (anr)