Merpati plane makes emergency landing

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)