Man behind Medan aid dispatch

Apriadi Gunawan, Contributor, Medan, North Sumatra

Air Col. Adi Supranto has shown great skill in determining the flight schedules at Medan's Polonia Airport, which, for the last three weeks, have seen the presence of a great number of foreign military airplanes carrying relief aid to Aceh.

Adi, the branch head of airport management company PT Angkasa Pura II of Polonia Airport in Medan, has of late been busy giving his full attention to regulating planes landing and taking off carrying humanitarian aid for Aceh.

Adi, born in Surakarta 53 years ago, however, says he has never felt burdened by this hectic job although he adds that it has never been easy because every country that sends aid to Aceh would like to see their airplanes fly there as quickly as possible.

The aid, usually food and medicine, is urgently needed by the tsunami victims.

A father of four, Adi said that the most important thing to remember to ensure his success in this job was coordination, particularly in regulating the flight schedule of foreign aircraft.

Without coordination, he said, it was impossible for the great number of airplanes parked at Polonia Airport to take off quickly. In the past few weeks, foreign, military and domestic flights from Polonia in Medan to Aceh have reached 250 a day. Prior to the tsunami disaster, the rate stood at 110 to 120 a day.

"Many foreign parties have complained to us that the tight flight schedule has delayed the flights of their airplanes. In fact, the root cause is that they have not coordinated with us beforehand," Adi said, adding that foreign parties rarely submitted their own flight schedules or said how long it would take to send their aid. As a result, flights had to be delayed.

At first, Adi said, it was not easy to keep control over hectic flight activities at Polonia Airport. It took a week to establish proper coordination with all parties relevant to these activities.

"It took us a week to get the pattern with which we could overcome this flight chaos. We coordinate with military and the civilian parties after we obtain their flight schedules. They give us their schedules and then we regulate the flights," Adi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He added that this job was the first experience in his career in regulating a great number of wide-bodied airplanes. Graduating from the Air Force Academy in 1974 with the rank of second lieutenant, Adi has taken this difficult task in his stride. With support from several assistants, he has risen to the challenge.

"I have been trained in the military to cope with all aviation jobs, no matter how difficult or risky they may be," said Adi, who is also a 1997 graduate of the School of Political Sciences of the Open University.

Adi said when he began his career in the air force, he was assigned to fly many types of airplanes, including seaplanes, Fokkers and Dakotas. In 1980, when he was a captain, he had a dramatic experience.

He was assigned to fly an airplane that carried First Marshall Sudarma, commander of seventh air territory command, from Ambon to Biak, Papua. On the way, the engine suddenly died. Adi, fought off his urge to panic and calmly and safely brought the airplane in to land in Sorong, Papua. No one was hurt in the emergency touchdown.

With his tried and tested flying skills, Adi worked as a pilot between 1989 and 2002. During that period, he accompanied Indonesian presidents on state visits to 68 countries. Adi did not fly an airplane but was assigned as a flight safety officer.

He said he experienced two unforgettable events during this assignment.

The first occurred in 1994 when he was a lieutenant colonel.

At that time he was on a flight carrying President Soeharto from Iran back to Indonesia. During this flight the crew realized the airplane had an excess cargo of some 3.7 tons. Unless this excess cargo was dumped, the fear was that the airplane would crash. In just 10 minutes Adi made a decision to throw out the cargo.

A similar event occurred in 2001 when Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid was president. Col. Adi was able to avert disaster on Gus Dur's flight from Venezuela to Chile because of his quick decision to reduce the load of the airplane.

This may have stemmed from his motto in life: "Be quick but accurate."

Adi, who is married to Esty MR, has worked successfully in many aviation jobs to prove his personal philosophy.

"It will be of no use if you do something fast but inaccurately. We must do everything quickly, accurately and correctly," said Adi, who won the 2003 Adi Nugraha award for best performance in PT Angkasa Pura II.

He got this award when he was still branch head of Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport, Pekan Baru. The next year he was appointed branch head of PT Angkasa Pura II Polonia Airport, Medan.

Apart from this award for best performance in PT Angkasa Pura, Adi, who was in 1992 to 2002 secretary-general of the Indonesian Aerosport Federation, has also earned honorary wings from the Japanese government for his success in unifying the ASEAN Aerosport Federation.

Now close to retirement, Adi only hopes that his record of service to his country is continued by the younger generation.

"Anybody, including me, will be proud if our younger generation can achieve more than we are. This nation needs a strong spirit and excellent human resources," he said.