Six killed in CN-235 accident in Serang
JAKARTA (JP): All six people aboard an Indonesian-made CN-235 aircraft were killed yesterday afternoon when it crashed in a freak accident at the Gorda airbase in Serang, West Java.
A flight team was testing a Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System (Lapes) when the accident occurred at 1:15 p.m. The CN-235 is manufactured by PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) based in Bandung.
Those killed were pilot Erwin Danoewinata, copilot Halim, project flight test engineer Didid Permadi, flight test mechanics Prihatno and Bambang Budi, and William Denton, an American instructor of Cargo Dropping System of Metrix Inc.
The bodies were burned beyond recognition. Forensic examiners at Hasan Sadikin hospital in Bandung were expected to complete identification of the bodies by early this morning.
Erwin, 39, with 16,000 hours flying time, garnered media attention as the pilot of IPTN's Gatotkaca N-250 commuter plane in a flight test in 1995.
The IPTN vice president and chief pilot instructor is survived by his wife, Christiana, and a 12-year-old son, Ian Wilbur Danoewinata.
Visit
IPTN chairman B.J. Habibie, who is also the research and technology minister, visited the crash site and spoke at a news conference at the Halim Perdanakusuma airbase hours later yesterday.
He said the crash occurred as the plane stalled during testing to parachute drop a sand bag weighing 4,000 kilograms at low altitude.
"The object was already set up at the open door and ready to be dropped," he said. "The parachute was also opened, but the parachute strings were torn. This caused the sand bag to become unstable."
The mishap apparently caused the plane to stall and negated its power to ascend, Habibie said. He added the pilot's best course of action in this situation would be to bring the plane to a lower altitude and then make a rapid ascent.
"However, this maneuver could not be done because the plane's altitude was only around 200 meters," Habibie said. "I have the video tape of the test, but I will release it later."
Antara quoted Hidayat from the Cikande district military office and airport employee Sukoco as saying the plane's tail section impacted the ground first.
But a source at IPTN told The Jakarta Post that fire was seen billowing from the fuselage of the plane before it crashed.
The source also said there were indications that one of the plane's propellers broke before the fire started.
A CN-235 crashed into Mount Pucang near Garut, West Java, in October 1992, killing all 31 people on board.
Habibie is scheduled to officiate at the funeral ceremony for the five Indonesians at the Cikutra heroes cemetery in Bandung today. (cst/ahy/sur)