Plane's engines failed at 20,000 feet: Pilot

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The pilot of the ill-fated Garuda Boeing 737-300, Abdul Rozak, which made an emergency landing on Bengawan Solo River in Klaten, Central Java, on Jan. 16, revealed on Thursday that the plane's two engines had broken down at 20,000 feet.

Being aware of engine trouble, he held a short discussion with copilot Heryadi Gunawan and then made an emergency landing, he said.

According to him, he contacted the control tower at Achmad Yani Airport in Semarang, Central Java, before the plane's engines got into trouble.

"It was my last contact. Afterwards, there was no more communication because the plane's twin engines cut out," he said, as quoted by detik.com.

Rozak made the acknowledgement to journalists at Garuda Indonesia's headquarters on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan.

The airplane, with 54 passengers and crew members onboard, made the emergency landing on a flight from Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, to Yogyakarta in Central Java. Stewardess Santi Anggraeni, who leapt minutes before the plane touched the river, was later found dead.

The aircraft's black box, which was found recently, has been sent to Australia to investigate what caused the engines to fail.

Rozak added that the weather was quite bad during the flight and that the plane was hit by strong winds.

When the plane emerged from a thick cloud, he said, he saw a large paddy field. "My copilot suggested that we make an emergency landing on land but I feared that might increase the number of victims, so I decided to make an emergency landing on the river," he said.

"The only thing that crossed my mind was that I must salvage the passengers, crew members and finally me. I prayed to God, after circling once above the river," he recalled.

Rozak said that soon after the emergency landing, he opened cabin doors and "ordered all passengers and other crew members to exit," said the 45-year-old pilot.

To show his responsibility, Rozak added that he stayed onboard the ill-fated airplane.

"I could not leave the aircraft because I was worried about whether there were any victims left onboard the aircraft. I stayed inside until rescuers took me out," he admitted.

Asked whether he would pilot other airplanes after the incident, Rozak said, "I want to fly again before the completion of the accident investigation".