'The Post', IPTN to seek out-of-court settlement

'The Post', IPTN to seek out-of-court settlement

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Post and the state-owned aircraft
maker IPTN agreed in principle yesterday to seek an out of court
settlement of their dispute over a recent plane crash report,
their lawyers said yesterday.

After a two-hour meeting, the lawyers said they needed one day
to discuss the agreement with their clients before they continued
negotiating tomorrow.

IPTN's chief lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution said that there is a
"very strong spirit" to seek a fair settlement out of court.
"This spirit has overcome all our emotions," he told a press
conference after the meeting.

They said that they have yet to work out the details of the
settlement.

"The main point is to restore (IPTN's) good name in the eyes
of both domestic and foreign potential buyers," Nasution
said.

The Post's chief lawyer, T. Mulya Lubis, said yesterday's
meeting had proceeded in a "very constructive atmosphere".

"Although several issues will be discussed again, I believe
these remaining differences can be resolved," he said.

The military version CN-235 airplane, built by IPTN, crashed
while conducting a test to parachute-drop a four-ton cargo at
Gorda Serang airbase in West Java on May 22. All six people,
including an American instructor, aboard the airplane died in the
crash.

The Post reported in its May 23rd edition, by quoting unnamed
source at IPTN, that fire was seen billowing from the fuselage of
the plane before it crashed.

It also reported that there were indications that one of the
plane's propellers had broken before the fire started.

IPTN president B.J. Habibie, also the state minister of
research and technology, has denied the report and supported his
claim with a video recording of the crash.

"It was completely wrong to suggest that a propeller had
broken and that a fire had broken out before it crashed," Habibie
said the day after the crash.

A military team of investigators has found that the crash was
caused by human error and there was nothing wrong with the
airplane.

"The rope which was connected to a parachute and was supposed
to hold the cargo broke suddenly when the pilot was about to drop
it," the chief of the Ministry of Defense and Security's team,
Lt. Col. Syarki Puteh, said last week.

IPTN has dismissed the Post's correction and apology for its
report in its May 24 edition as "inadequate". It has demanded
that the paper apologize in local and international newspapers
which it will name.

The Bandung-based company claimed that, despite the May 24
correction and apology, the Post's report could ruin its chances
of winning contracts in several countries.

"We do not want this report to be exploited by our competitors
to discredit IPTN," Nasution said.

"There was give and take in the negotiation... and we do not
want to kill the Post," Nasution said.

Nasution denied that his client had decided to ask the
newspaper for a certain amount of compensation.

"It is too early, IPTN has not counted its loss," Nasution
said. (06)