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).