Garuda's apology

In response to a complaint from reader Mrs. Juliana Lestari Tanie in this column (March 1), please accept our apology for the incident which caused inconveniences to Mrs. Juliana and her colleagues. The complaint concerned Garuda Indonesia's services on flight GA-828 Jakarta-Singapore route, Jan. 14, 2001.

We would also like to explain the chronology of the incident.

On Sunday, Jan. 14, the DC-10 aircraft, flight number GA-828 of the Jakarta-Singapore route, failed to land at Singapore's Changi Airport due to bad weather and a crack in its right windshield. The pilot decided to land at an alternative airport, the Hang Nadim Airport at Batam.

The airplane landed at Hang Nadim at 5:15 p.m., local time. Following examinations of the airplane by Garuda technicians at the airport and coordination with Garuda's flight operation control in Jakarta, it was decided that GA-828 could not operate (Aircraft On Ground), and was declared grounded at Hang Nadim for repairs.

Mrs. Juliana, therefore, was correct in saying that aircraft of other companies managed to land at Changi, as the GA-828 was under repairs for the sake of safety. The damage was categorized as a "No Go" item.

The Garuda official at Hang Nadim immediately explained to passengers that GA-828 could not fly and was under repair.

Garuda officers explained that there was no other Garuda aircraft available to fly them to Singapore. The last Garuda flight, GA-155 of the Jakarta-Batam route, had already returned to Jakarta at 4:55 p.m.

As a solution, the Garuda officers offered passengers two alternatives: a) To stay the night at a hotel in Batam at Garuda's expense for departure to Singapore by a Garuda flight the following morning, Monday, Jan. 15; or b) To proceed to Singapore by ferry, with the reminder that the ferry's departure schedule was tight: from Sekupang port at 7 p.m. and from Batu Ampar port at 8 p.m. Both schedules were for the last ferry departures from Batam to Singapore.

All GA-828 passengers chose to proceed by ferry, upon which Batam's Garuda office conducted the necessary preparations. These included the deployment of four buses for passengers, one for their luggage, and one ambulance and a nurse for a sick passenger seeking treatment in Singapore.

Garuda officers also prepared food and beverages which, however, fell short of passengers' expectations, as all restaurants at Hang Nadim were closed.

Because all passengers of the flight were proceeding to Singapore by ferry, Batam immigration officials needed to recheck their travel documents, which indeed took time given the total of 154 passengers.

Passengers then left for Singapore. Twenty-six, including the sick passenger, departed on Jan. 14 at 8 p.m. from Sekupang port, one hour later than scheduled; 138 passengers left at 10:30 p.m. from Batu Ampar port, or two-and-a-half hours after the scheduled departure time.

The trip by ferry was accompanied by Garuda officials and all fees were paid by Garuda. On arrival at the World Trade Center, Singapore's ferry port, staff of the Garuda Representative Office in Singapore assisted passengers in proceeding to their destinations in Singapore, including the sick passenger who was transported to the Glenn Eagles hospital by ambulance.

Once again, we would like to extend our apologies for any shortcomings of Garuda's service, including in the arrangement of the ferry trip.

PUJOBROTO

PT Garuda Indonesia

Chief of Public Relations