Skidding plane injures 5 in Indonesia

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

A Boeing 737-400 struggled to land in heavy rain yesterday, and was critically damaged as it skidded nearly 250 feet past the runway in Batam.

In another dramatic segment in the Indonesian aviation saga, the Adam Air jetliner saw five of its 170 passengers hospitalised with head and neck injuries, according to Pantun Banjarnahor, chief of operations at Hang Nadim Airport.

Pantun continued to describe the extent of the damages, which included the right wing, hydraulic system and rear landing gear.

The Indonesian airline industry has been subject to international attention, with over 120 deaths in 2007. This is the third accident with Adam Air involvement in just over a year, AP reported.

The Adam Air plane crash in January 2007, which led to all 102 on board presumed dead, was one of the catalysts that resulted in an EU ban on all Indonesian airlines.

This ban is currently under review by the EU. Indonesia has also fallen to the lowest rating in the US Federal Aviation Administration, according to the national UK news agency, The Press Association.

In this case, the reason for the difficult landing has not been identified.

Reuters published that the Adam Air spokesperson, Danke Drajat, mentioned the heavy rain as a possible cause, but clarified “whether it was due to the weather it is not for us to say.”

However, Pantun professed that the visibility conditions should not have prevented a safe landing.

The airport closure following the incident lasted over two hours.

Most of the victims had been released, a doctor who declined identification claimed. However, Reuters reported that he said it was unclear if any of the remaining injuries were serious.

Peter

Interesting terminology

"CriticallyDamaged" and "rear landing gear"

this airline has had no end of problems and has now been grounded

I flew on Adam Air a few times last year for domestic flights in Indo but after seeing an Indonesian based airline crashing or disappearing a few times on the news I stopped using any domestic airlines if I can help it.

But if I want to fly domestically in Indo I really don't have a choice but to use a local airline, lately I have been using Lion Air. But for anywhere else I always fly Singapore Air

But no matter what my rear tightens up every time I jump on an Indo airline, even before all of the crashes my stewardess friends used to tell me stories about incompetent pilots, lousy maintenance and how easy it is to bribe airline inspectors.