The key mission of the National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) is to investigate the cause of air, sea and railway accidents across the country. The Jakarta Post's Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo spoke with KNKT chairman Tatang Kurniadi about the commission's role and the challenges it faces.
Question: How did the KNKT start out?
Answer: The commission began as an aviation accident investigator, which was placed under the Directorate General of Air Transportation. Some experts from the Air Force were recruited into the body, such as myself, and also several legal experts.
The commission was adopted by the Transportation Ministry, based on a 1999 presidential decree. It changed its name to the National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) because it was the investigator for all modes of transportation accidents.
We also investigate both railway and automobile accidents. However, for most land accidents, the police usually take over the cases.
With sea accidents, we have the Nautical Court, which has the same function as the commission. To avoid the overlapping of functions, distinctive roles and laws for both bodies are needed.
Have operators complied with the findings and recommendations of the KNKT?
I am relatively new in this position. I was installed as KNKT chairman on March 5, so allow me to get back to that. Currently, we are handling the investigation of the recent Garuda Indonesia accident in Yogyakarta.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) says the KNKT must report to them about any air accidents. We have to do this within a specified time, but they can give us more time if a case is really complex. We want to show that we can work fast.
Can other countries meddle with an investigation being carried out by the commission?
There are several ICAO-set conditions that countries abide by regarding air accidents. These cover the design of aircraft, the country in which aircraft manufacturers are based, the country of registration, operators of aircraft, the location of occurrences and details pertaining to victims.
In the context of the Garuda accident, the jetliner was designed by Boeing and the country of manufacture was the U.S. It is a little more complex though, as several parts of the aircraft came from other countries, so they also have the right to receive our report.
The registry, which is the country where the operator is based, is Indonesia, while the operator is Garuda Indonesia.
The origin of victims is covered so we can also allow victims' countries to receive our report. In the Garuda accident, several passengers were foreigners.
If those countries wish to help, such as by helping us investigate a crash, then they must get our permission first for access. They cannot investigate an accident on their own. They may only do this if accompanied by the KNKT.
Australia has offered its services in extracting information from the Garuda airliner's black box. The black box, which has become Indonesia's asset, is being read in Canberra with the participation of Indonesian staff.
Because there was a portion of the black box that Australia could not access, they then sent it to its manufacturer, Honeywell, in Seattle, in the U.S.
The black box is not the only device that can tell us the cause of the accident. It's only a tool to help us accurately describe what happened.
Some people noticed that the aircraft was diving rapidly from the air to the ground while landing. This scene could be viewed differently by different people. By decoding the black box, we know, among other things, the speed of the aircraft when it hit the runway.
The black box actually consists of two devices. Can you tell me more about their functions?
A black box is made up of two devices that are placed side by side in an aircraft. One is the flight data recorder (FDR) and the other is a cockpit voice recorder (CVR). They are not painted black anymore as they used to be in the 1950s. Now they are orange because the color orange is more visible than black after an accident.
An FDR records all parameters of an aircraft. It used to record only five or six parameters, such as velocity and speed. Now, up to 400 parameters can be recorded inside the modern box. It can record changes in wind speed and the movement of a plane's wings and flaps. The ICAO has ruled that the minimum number of recorded parameters be 88.
The CVR is used to record all sounds inside a cockpit, such as conversation between pilots or cabin crew, or perhaps the sound of a gunshot inside an aircraft.
Information from both the FDR and CVR consists of multiple diagrams and models after experts decode them. This data can only be deciphered by experts.
What happened to the black boxes of previous accidents?
Many people have asked from time to time for the KNKT to reveal its findings to the public. But it's pointless to publish our findings as each accident report can have more than 50 pages.
The data from the black box is then tabulated with other external investigative data to make findings more accurate.
The location of the black box from the Adam Air jetliner, which plummeted into the Majene Sea (South Sulawesi), has been detected. However, salvaging the devices could cost some US$3 million. The ICAO says it is the country -- it could be the Indonesian government or the company itself -- that should pay for the project, but this cost is just too high.
Moreover, after salvaging it, the box might not even be readable because of physical damage.
How about the condition of the KNKT?
The KNKT consists of people who are willing to help. For air accidents, we have only 29 investigators, for sea accidents about eight, for railway 14 and for land about four. People may think that we've been working slowly, but this is because we only have a few investigators.
And they are paid more like volunteers than professionals.
We currently have an aircraft expert from an airline company and a metallurgy expert from the Bandung Institute of Technology.
One of our members, who tried to crack the black box's data in the U.S., Prof. Mardjono, is actually an instructor at a university.
Speaking about our independence from the Transportation Ministry, the most important aspect to keep in mind is that our investigators are capable and willing to do the work. Our independent status means we receive enough funds to do the job independently.
No comments:
Post a Comment