Sunday, August 30, 2009 00:37 WIB
Surabaya (ANTARA News) - A navy Casa 212 plane landed on its belly and overshot the runway by 150 meters at the Gwa Wamar Dobo airfield on Aru island at around 11 am on Saturday but nobody was hurt.
"We have not received a complete report about it yet but for the time being we believe it was a case of undershooting," a navy spokesperson, Col Parno, said when asked to confirm the incident Saturday evening.
The plane landed on its fuselage after its rear landing gear broke on touch-down. However, all of the 16 people on board were safe.
"We almost died when the plane landed on its fuselage and overshot the runway by up to 150 meters," one of the passengers, Yanto, said when contacted by cellphone from Ambon.
He said the plane departed from Pattimura airport in Ambon at at 7am and made a stopover at Dumatubun Langgur airfield before proceeding to Dobo.
"Upon landing in Dobo we suddenly felt strong jolts that made all the passengers panick and shout histerically," he said.
People panicked even more after the plane overshot the runway and there were sparks of fire. There was no explosion, however.
The jolts proved to have come from the landing gear when it broke during landing.
" I do not know the names of the pilot or co-pilot. Everybody panicked. Some were even shocked and fainted. Fortunately, the plane did not explode or catch fire," he said adding that all the passengers on the plane were adults.
When the plane had stopped sliding, the pilot immediately opened the door and asked the passengers to exit slowly.This was the very first plane accident on Aru island.
Col Parno said the pilot of the plane was navy captain Marpaung while the co-pilot was first lieutenant Zulda.
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