Increasing problems in Indonesian skies

On Jan. 21, 1997, I was returning from Manila via Singapore on Singapore Airlines (SQ164). Having enjoyed a routine flight, I was busy preparing my papers for landing when the plane, a few hundred feet from the ground, began to bank wildly from side to side. One could sense a feeling of consternation among my fellow passengers though no one spoke a word.

After a few seconds, the plane straightened out and we again tried to land, when, for a second time, the plane rocked crazily from side to side for several seconds. At that point fear took hold. We did arrive at Soekarno-Hatta. And thankfully the pilot deemed it necessary to give his passengers an explanation for this decided scare.

All could understand from the intercom that another plane had crossed our flight path and we had been caught in the turbulence. How this happened twice, however, remained to be explained.

As a frequent business-class traveler, and a priority passenger on Singapore Air (all over Asia and to Europe) I seek further explanation of what happened over the airport that night. If there are near misses in Jakarta I think the public and powers that be have the right to know.

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