Air Transport

Indonesian police charge Garuda crash pilot with manslaughter

By Leithen Francis

Indonesian police have laid criminal charges against the captain of the Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-400 that crashed on landing last year at Yogyakarta airport killing 21 people.

Reports from Indonesia, quoting the pilot’s lawyer Muhamad Assegaff, say the captain Marwoto Komar has been questioned by police and charged with manslaughter.

The lawyer claims the police case uses information contained in the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Commission (NTSC) report into the crash. He says such crash reports cannot be submitted as evidence in criminal cases.

The NTSC in October issued its final report into the 7 March 2007 crash of the Garuda 737-400 in which 21 of the 140 people on board were killed.

In its report the NTSC said the aircraft was going too fast to land, at 221kt (410km/h), the captain was fixated with landing and he ignored repeated warnings from the co-pilot to carry out a go-around.

The report also criticised the co-pilot for failing to intervene and override the captain’s authority.

In addition, Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) came in for criticism for being ineffective in identifying lapses in Garuda’s pilot training with regards to the co-pilot.

Source: flightglobal.com's sister premium news site Air Transport Intelligence news

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