Garuda pilots ignore bomb threats, continues flights

Garuda pilots ignore bomb threats, continues flights

JAKARTA (JP): Three Garuda Indonesia Airways flights ignored a
bomb threat allegedly from an East Timorese rebel group in
Australia on Friday and safely landed at Ngurah Rai Airport in
Denpasar, Bali, later that afternoon.

The Garuda representative office in Sydney received the bomb
threat by telephone from a person claiming to be from the "East
Timor Liberation Front".

The unidentified caller claimed that the group had placed
bombs aboard the three planes bound for Bali. He added that the
explosive devices had been timed to explode at the same time.

The threat was instantly conveyed to Garuda offices in
Denpasar and Jakarta, along with the pilots of the three
aircraft.

The pilots of the three flights were informed several minutes
after takeoff from Sydney, Perth and Melbourne, but decided to
disregard the warning and continue with the flights.

Fortunately the decision proved to be the right one.

Flight GA-715 from Sydney, flown by Capt. Hermawan, touched
down at 1:15 p.m. Flight GA-723 from Melbourne, flown by Capt.
Ardono, landed half an hour later while flight GA-727 from Perth,
flown by Capt. Nugroho, landed at 2:05 p.m.

Upon their arrival ground crews began extensive searches of
the planes but came up empty, proving that the bomb scare was
merely a hoax.

Sularjo, a Ngurah Rai Airport official, confirmed that their
had been a bomb threat.

Antara quoted him as saying that ground crew went over the
planes thoroughly, causing flight GA-715 and GA-723, which were
to continue on to Jakarta, to be delayed for three hours.

He said passengers did not panic since they were not informed
of the bomb threat. (prb)