Court hearings opened yesterday in the negligence case against the captain of the Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-400 that crashed on landing at Yogyakarta airport last year killing 21 people.
The hearings opened this morning at a court in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta where the captain of flight GA200, Marwoto Komar, was read several charges against him. He was arrested in February and charged over the 7 March 2007 fatal crash.
Prosecutors allege that Komar was negligent and his actions resulted in the deaths of 21 of the 140 people on board the aircraft. According to the state-run Antara news agency, today’s hearings were adjourned until 4 August when Komar’s lawyers will be able to present initial defence arguments. He reportedly faces life in prison if convicted of the charges of negligence causing death.
Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Commission issued a final report into the crash in October. It determined the aircraft was far too high and fast on its final approach and despite ground-proximity warning alerts, a flap deployment of just 5° and calls from the co-pilot for a go-around, the captain did not abandon the approach. The aircraft overran the runway and burst into flames.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: Flight International
