Jakarta Globe, Putri Prameshwari, April 20, 2010
Aviation investigators have started looking into a runway accident that killed two people on Monday after an aircraft collided with a motorcycle at an airfield in Tangerang.
National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) spokesman JA Barata said a team of five investigators had been sent to Curug, Tangerang, on the outskirts of Jakarta, where two people on a motor cycle were killed when they were hit by a training plane coming in to land at Budiarto Airport.
“We’ve sent a team to the scene, headed by lead investigator Toos Sanityoso,” he said. “This is a serious accident.”
Two men, identified as Azumar, 24, and Yopie Hermawan, 16, a student at Bhakti Vocational Senior High School, were killed on impact at about 8:30 a.m. after illegally entering the grounds of the airport, used by the Indonesian Aviation Institute (STPI), in an apparent attempt to take a shortcut across the runway.
Coincidentally, the men crossed the runway at the same time a single-engine Socata TB-10 Tobago training aircraft was landing. The two people aboard the plane were also seriously injured in the accident. They were taken to Siloam Hospital in Karawaci for treatment after the unusual accident.
“It’s illegal for motorcycles to be on the runway,” said STPI chairman Darwis Amini.
He added that management of Budiarto Airport was not the responsibility of the flight school, and lambasted the lax security measures that had failed to keep unauthorized people out of the restricted zone.
Ministry of Transportation spokesman Bambang Ervan said it was not unusual for motor cyclists to use the runway as a shortcut, despite it being illegal.
“There are wire fences and gutters installed all around the airport,” he said, “but people still manage to find ways to break in.”
He said the airport’s operator, working under the auspices of the ministry, was unable to maintain around-the-clock monitoring of every airport in the country.
“Tight monitoring 24 hours a day, day in and day out, is impossible,” he said. “There’s just not enough people to carry it out.”
Danang Parikesit, chairman of the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI), an industry watchdog, called the accident “an indication of poor airport security.”
He said all airports must strictly enforce their no-trespass zones, even if they only served as training airports.
“While universal transportation safety would be ideal, airports are expected to have much higher security standards than other transportation hubs,” Da nang said, adding that the airport operator must be held responsible for Monday’s breach.
He called on the Transportation Ministry to re-evaluate its policies on airport security, saying that the accident should never have happened.
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