Wamena airport remains closed after Russian cargo plane crash
Wamena airport remains closed after Russian cargo plane crash
R.K. Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura
An airfield in the remote Papuan town of Wamena remained closed
to larger aircraft on Monday following the crash of a chartered
cargo plane there earlier on Sunday, local officials said.
"Only small planes like Cessnas and Twins can land here," an
airport official in Wamena told The Jakarta Post.
He said at least two 27-seat Fokker aircraft belonging to PT
Trigana Air Service had to cancel their flights from Sentani
airport in Jayapura to Wamena.
It was not clear when large cargo and passenger planes would
be allowed to resume landing at the airport.
Local airport authorities decided to temporarily close the
Wamena airfield after a chartered cargo aircraft leased by
Trigana crashed when one of its front tires suddenly exploded.
The damaged plane was still sitting on the airport runway on
Monday evening. The local authorities were striving to remove it
from the airfield.
The Russian-made aircraft (Antonov), piloted by Nicolay
Vassilijev, was carrying seven tons of mixed cargo, including six
tons of rice belonging to the Wamena logistics agency (Dolog),
from Sentani airport.
There were no reports of fatalities as a result of the
accident.
Airport officials said the pilot, co-pilot Vladimir Pedveley,
two crew members and a 13-year-old child, identified as Rindra,
were able to escape before a fire gutted the aircraft's cabin.
The plane, with registration number FA 1328/0703/02, crash-
landed during normal and clear weather conditions, they said.
Mulyato, one of the officials, said an fire fighting team
managed to put out the blaze 30 minutes after its arrival at the
scene from Jayawijaya regency.
However, a source said the fire fighters only arrived one hour
after the accident. "Serious damage to the aircraft could have
been prevented if the fire fighting team had come earlier," the
source, who refused to be identified, told Antara.
According to Mulyato, the pilot had contacted Wamena
airfield's control tower and told them that there was no sign of
trouble with the aircraft.
However, "When touching down, one of the tires of the
aircraft's front landing gear blew up, forcing it to make a
belly-landing," Mulyato said.
Fire then emerged from the front undercarriage and later
spread to other parts of the aircraft, he explained
More than a half of the plane's fuselage was destroyed by the
fire.
Local Dolog official Abdul Hamid said on Monday that all six
tons of rice were likely to have been destroyed in the crash,
adding that he could not specify the amount of the losses
incurred by his agency as a result of the accident.