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)