Transport Ministry pursues delinquent door

Transport Ministry pursues delinquent door

JAKARTA (JP): The Directorate General of Air Transportation is investigating why the door of a Sempati Fokker-100 fell off while the plane was in flight.

The plane was over Tangerang, West Java, on Thursday when the door fell off, airline spokesman Arief R. Rusman said yesterday.

Another official said that the door bolt was found with the door.

Arief told The Jakarta Post that the directorate general's office of air feasibility has yet to conclude the investigation.

A source at Sempati said human and technical errors could have caused the accident. He cited a similar accident when the unlocked door of a Garuda Indonesia Fokker-28 came off while the plane was in flight.

The Sempati plane, bound for Pekanbaru in Riau, was 1,000 feet over the village of Sarakan, Tangerang, when its door came off, only 10 minutes after its 7:20 a.m. takeoff on Thursday.

Pilot Tony S. turned the plane back to the Soekarno-Hatta airport. No one on board was hurt.

The plane was carrying 79 passengers, including two children, and six crew, including the pilot and co-pilot.

Eye witnesses Manin and Suryadi said that they saw something white, like a wallet, floating in the sky as the plane passed overhead. They told the Suara Pembaruan evening daily they were guarding their buffaloes when the accident happened.

They said they rushed to the area where "the wallet" fell but they became afraid when they saw it was a large piece of metal. Thinking it was a bomb, the village teenagers ran away.

They said the plane was flying shakily and turned in the opposite direction.

Sempati has seven Fokker-100 planes for use on domestic flights. The one whose door came off was made in 1990, and began operations in 1991, Rusman said yesterday. (icn/sur)