Naval Casa-212 plane makes belly landing

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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Honda Freed production line to be expanded

Mustaqim Adamrah , The Jakarta Post , JAKARTA | Sat, 08/29/2009 12:58 PM

Japan-based carmaker PT Honda Prospect Motor (HPM) plans to expand its local production capacity from 50,000 units annually to 60,000 to fulfil its plans to export its newly released Honda Freed.

HPM marketing and after sales service director Jonfis Fandy said Friday this expansion in capacity was urgent as demand for the Honda Freed had so far reached 5,000 units by the end of this month, forcing the company to cut production of the Honda Jazz and the CR-V.

Honda Freed

As a result, he said, consumers had to wait for three months to get their Honda Freeds.

Sales of Honda Freeds are expected to exceed 4,000 units this month, he said. However this was still 20 percent under current monthly demand, hence the delays in meeting customer’s orders.

“We increased production capacity of the Freed by 50 percent to 1,500 units a month in July by sacrificing the production levels of the CR-V and Jazz,” Jonfis said.

“So, we have decreased the production levels of these two models on purpose. It’s not true that Jazz and CR-V sales have weakened.”

HPM’s parent company Honda Motor Corp. has appointed a local company, which already has an assembly plant in Karawang, West Java, to become the production hub for the expanding production line for the Honda Freed, which was only launched in June, in the Southeast Asian region, but is already seen as a marketing success.

Jonfis said HPM would start to export a total of 30 Honda Freeds to Brunei Darussalam and Singapore next month, while it was still waiting for another call from Thailand that it should step up exports destined for that market.

“Exports (of Honda Freed) are expected to start next year,” he said.

Industry Ministry director for land and military transportation industries Panggah Susanto confirmed HPM’s plan to export the Honda Freed model from its Indonesian assembly line.

The Freed was launched in Japan in May 2008, and in March 2009 in Indonesia. It was nominated the Best Value Minivan in Japan Car of the Year 2008-2009. Its initial success may be attributed to good design, anticipating customer needs and improved consumer confidence.

Honda chose the minivan’s name to stand for “free + do” (Freed), meaning passengers can move about freely in the cabin and do whatever they please, especially children, who can play when the rear seat is folded down. This type of consideration is critical to the success of the vehicle.

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Indonesia and Belanda to Match up Aviation Rules

WAHYUDIN FAHMI, Tuesday, 25 August, 2009 | 13:33 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Indonesian transportation department has signed a bilateral agreement with the Netherlands following the flight ban lifted by the European Union.

Earlier, Indonesia signed a horizontal agreement as a legal foundation for a bilateral cooperation with European Union countries.

The Government has chosen the Netherlands to be first country in the European Union that will work bilaterally with Indonesia.

The cooperation is related to the plan of PT Garuda Indonesia to open flight routes to the Netherlands next year.

“The bilateral agreement with the Netherlands was signed on August 19 in The Hague,” said Director General for Air Transportation, Herry Bakti S. Gumay by phone, yesterday (24/8).

At the signing, Herry represented Indonesia while the Netherlands was represented by special advisor/negotiator chairman, Hans de Jong.

Herry explained that the agreement was an updated version of an older agreement made in 1994. “So the old agreement becomes in line with the horizontal agreement,” he said.

In the bilateral agreement, Indonesia and the Netherlands have agreed to match up articles regarding flight safety and security with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards.

Both parties will also arrange the flight routes and code-shares. “Garuda Indonesia plans to work together with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines regarding the code-shares,” said Herry.

Garuda to Start Direct Flights to Amsterdam Next Year

The Jakarta Globe,

Garuda Indonesia will begin direct flights to the Netherlands next year after an air agreement was signed between Indonesian and Dutch authorities, the Transportation Ministry said on Sunday.

Herry Bhakti Singayuda, director general of civil aviation at the ministry, said the bilateral agreement signed in The Hague revised the countries’ last agreement. “It was last updated in 1994,” he said. “Now we have aligned it to our agreement with the European Union.”

The EU lifted its flight restrictions on four Indonesian carriers — Garuda, Mandala Airlines, PremiAir and Airfast — in July, allowing them to fly in to Europe after being banned for two years. The ban is still in place for other local airlines.

Herry said the agreement designated Garuda and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as the two carriers to service the route between the countries, and included a code-sharing deal.

In the agreement, safety measures were updated in line with International Civil Aviation Organization regulations, he said, and tariffs were also discussed.

Garuda’s chief executive, Emirsyah Satar, said the airline would start flying to Amsterdam early next year.

“We will use our fleet of Boeing 737-800 NGs,” he said, adding that the airline also planned to use their Boeing 777s and Airbus 330-200s on the route.

The agreement with the Netherlands was reached after the “Initial Agreement on Certain Other Aspects of Air Services,” was signed between Indonesia and the EU on Aug. 17 in Brussels.

The EU agreement, Herry said, outlined possible new routes with Europe. The next destination was likely to be London, depending on market assessments.

A statement released by the EU said that the agreement would establish a direct legal relationship between Indonesia and the EU in the civil aviation field for the first time.

“Most importantly, it will remove nationality restrictions in the bilateral air services agreements between EU member states and Indonesia,” it said.

The flight ban was imposed by the EU on Indonesian airlines in July 2007 citing safety and monitoring issues.

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