Sukhoi Superjet 100 Crash

On Wednesday, 9 May, a Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane directly struck the rocky side of Mount Salak, a dormant volcano near the West Java town of Bogor (60 kilometers from Jakarta), killing all 45 passengers and crews.

According to The Jakarta Globe, the twin jet engine plane was on a sales promotion trip to Indonesia, carrying mostly Indonesians, 8 Russian crews, plus an America and Frenchman.

The plane vanished from radar screen 50 minutes into what was meant to be a short Joy Flight for prospective buyers as Russia tries to rebuild its civilian aircraft industry.

Indonesian aviation officials said that before the plane vanished, its pilot has requested permission to descent to about 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) which is lower than the mountain's height of 6,500 feet (1,800 meters).

The Jakarta Post reported that The Chief of the Indonesian National Rescue Agency i.e Vice Marshall Daryatmo has announced a few days ago that all of the crash victims remains has been evacuated from the mountainside crash site. 37 body bags containing the remains of victims of the crash have been sent to the National Police Hospital in East Jakarta.

The agency's search and rescue team has found the plane's damaged Black Box last Tuesday but it only contained the Voice Cockpit Recorder (VCR), and not the FDR which records Speed, Pitch and Altitude of the plane during flight.

Meanwhile, the leader of the the Russian team who was sent to help the search and rescue efforts, i.e. Michael Chupalenkov, was quoted as saying that his team would maintain ten men to keep on looking for the crash victims remains and the planes' FDR.

To all the families, relatives and friends of the crash victims, I would like to express my deepest sympathy and condolence. And to all members of the Indonesian and Russian search and rescue teams, I would like thank you all for your efforts, and hope that you would keep on doing your job until it is finished.   


Photo :  Courtesy of Wikipedia

Merpati Plane Crash - 27 Died

A Merpati airlines Flight MZ8968 plane plunged to the sea yesterday as it approached the Utarom Airport, Kaimana, West Papua. All of its 21 passengers and 6 crews were predicted died in the accident.

Kompas quoted the Director General of Air Transportation Herry Bhakti as saying that the made-in China MA-60 turboprop plane was scheduled to land at 1.55 pm. At that time the weather was bad, rain was falling heavily and cloudy,  the plane was almost ready to land when suddenly communications broke off before the crash.


The fact that the plane was manufactured in 2010, therefore very young, has made people questioned the quality of the plane. Especially that former Vice President Jusuf Kalla has once rejected Merpati's plan to buy fifteen MA-60 because it was not certified by the U.S Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Aviation observer Dudi Soedibyo said that the CN-235 passenger plane produced by Indonesia is much better than the Chinese MA-60. This can be seen from the fact that our CN-235 has been used by US Coast Guard, South Korean Air Force, French Air Force and Merpati airlines.

In a hearing with the House of Representatives in June 2009, the President Director of Merpati Bambang Bhakti revealed that the airlines has once grounded an MA-60 plane because they found a Crack in the Rudder of the plane.

Meanwhile the Director General of Air Transportation said that the plane has been certified in China and Indonesia, therefore there should not be any problem flying it here.

Considering that Merpati has purchased fifteen MA-60 planes, four flying - waiting for eleven more, I hope that the Indonesian government and aviation authority would investigate this accident thoroughly, . I also hope that the House of Representatives would hold hearing with Merpati and relevant parties on the real reason why has Merpati purchased the Chinese MA-60 plane, instead of our own CN-235 plane which is much better and safer.