Madiun jetfighter crash an accident
Madiun jetfighter crash an accident
The Jakarta Post, Madiun
Commander of the Iswahyudi air force base in Madiun, Rear
Marshall Djoko Purwoko, maintains that a crash involving two Hawk
MK-53s that killed all four people on board on Thursday was an
accident, ruling out the possibility of human error or mechanical
failure.
The two Air Force fighter planes crashed on Thursday while
performing training exercises in the East Java town of Madium,
killing all four pilots.
"The crash was purely an accident, as the pilots acted
according to procedures," Purwoko told a press conference in
Madiun on Thursday afternoon.
"They ejected their seats to exit the planes. But as they were
flying too low, at a height of 1000 feet, they were unable to
open their parachutes and crashed to ground," he said.
"I'm very proud of the pilots as they tried to rescue the
planes and themselves, although they were unable to do so. But
that's the risk of training," he noted.
The deceased were pilots Capt. Andi Solihin and Capt. Wieko
Nartomo and their respective co-pilots, Maj. S.N. Hutasuhut and
Capt. Masrial, who were all in their early 30s.
The accident involving the two British-made Hawk MK-53
fighters occurred at around 8:10 a.m. local time in the Iswahyudi
Air Force base, while rehearsing for an air show.
Purwoko said the planes fell to the ground and caught fire
after they collided when conducting "loop maneuvers".
"The wings of the ill-fated planes hit each other. They were
flying at 600 kilometers per hour," he told The Jakarta Post by
phone from Madiun.
Indonesian Military Commander Admiral Widodo Adisutjipto,
however, said the training fighters crashed when they were about
to land.
"There were three aircraft performing a 'format flight
training', two of them crashed," he said after attending a
Cabinet meeting presided over by Vice President Hamzah Haz in
Jakarta.
He extended condolences to the bereaved families of the
victims. "We are concerned about the accident and we all regret
it."
Air Force spokesman Maj. Gen. Imam Wahyudi, speaking to
journalists at the Cilangkap Military Headquarters in East
Jakarta, said the two planes were completely written off.
Wahyudi said Air Force chief Marshall Hanafie Asnan and his
entourage left Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma Airport for the
crash site in Madiun at 12 a.m. on Thursday.
Purwoko said the four victims' bodies were flown to their
respective hometowns in Surabaya, Jombang in East Java,
Yogyakarta and Padang in North Sumatra. The deceased were all
buried on Friday, by their grieving families.
Thursday's crash was the fourth involving a Hawk aircraft
since the Air Force purchased 24 Hawk-100 and Hawk-200 jet
fighters from British Aerospace Plc. in Britain in 1993.
The eight Hawk-100 trainers and 16 ground attack Hawk-200
fighters were bought at a cost of 500 million pounds (US$770
million).