Merpati plane makes emergency landing

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): Several people were injured when a Merpati Nusantara Airlines Fokker-27, with 25 people on board, made an emergency landing on account of technical failure yesterday.

Austrian ambassador Hans Demel and his wife, Gloria, were among the passengers rushing out in panic after the aircraft roughly came to a stop at El Tari Airport with its left wing driven into the ground.

The aircraft was about to land in Maumere when pilot Priambodo Ady and co-pilot Rudy Kurniawan realized that the left landing gear could not be locked and decided to return to Kupang.

East Nusa Tanggara police chief Col. Trimida Dani said that the aircraft returned to Kupang because Maumere airport does not have adequate emergency landing facilities.

He said that the accident did not affect other incoming flights, because the crippled aircraft's position was quite far from the runway.

After flying around and leaking fuel over Kupang, the aircraft managed to land with its landing gear unlocked. It slid off the runway before coming to a stop, eyewitnesses said.

Two fire trucks and a team of rescue workers rushed to the scene, they said.

Ambassador Demel, who was on his first visit to East Nusa Tenggara since assuming his post two years ago, said he remained unshaken by the accident.

Demel was in the province to visit Austrian Catholic priests working in the area.

Passenger Petrus Ngango Tanggu Bera said he saw three passengers suffer leg injuries after attempting to break windows with their feet in a desperate effort to escape after the plane touched down.

Petrus also claimed to have seen two other people being rushed out on stretchers by a medical team. (yac/pan)