Air Force Hercules ‘old and obsolete’

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 05/22/2009 12:01 PM  |  Headlines

Herculean tragedy: Indonesian Air Force personnel carry the coffin of a victim of the crashed C-130 military cargo plane, at an air base in Magetan, East Java, on Wednesday. The plane, with more than 100 people on aboard, crashed into a row of houses Wednesday and burst into flames in a rice paddy, killing 99, the latest in a string of accidents plaguing the country’s beleaguered Air Force. AP/Trisnadi

A limited budget that forced the Indonesian air force to use obsolete components for its military aircraft may explain the latest crash of a Hercules, experts and lawmakers said Thursday.

The C-130 Hercules carrying military personnel and their families hit several homes on the ground Wednesday, bursting into flames and scattering debris across a wide area in Magetan, East Java. More than 100 people were killed.

The tragedy could possibly have been prevented if there were a bigger budget allotted to upgrade obsolete components, University of Indonesia defense expert Bantarto Bandoro said
“In my view, the tragedy happened because the plane along with its components had become old and obsolete. So I think we need an investigation into the flight capability of the Hercules. We also need to consider looking deeper into the available spare parts,” he said.

“The limited budget might have forced the plane to use outdated spare parts.”

Djoko Susilo, a legislator from the House of Representatives' Commission I on defense and foreign affairs, said lawmakers had told the government to increase the maintenance  funds for military aircraft.

“The Finance Minister [Sri Mulyani Indrawati] objected to our request. I had told her during our meeting several months ago that she too would be scared to go on board a military plane,” he said.
“The budget available is only 20 percent of the total ideal budget,” Djoko said.

Commission I deputy chairman Yusron Ihza Mahendra was quoted by detik.com news portal as saying the government only allocated around Rp 33.6 trillion out of the requested Rp 127 trillion for the military defense budget, which included aircraft maintenance.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla acknowledged the point of the legislators that there was a limited budget for military aircraft maintenence.

“This accident happened because there was not enough budget allocation for our main weaponry systems. We need to provide more for this budget as soon as possible, I will guarantee that,” he said Wednesday as quoted by Kompas.com.

But incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, now also Kalla's rival in the upcoming presidential election, refuted the claim.

“We have cut expenditure on  purchasing new planes, ships and tanks for the military. But the routine spending, including operational and maintenance budgets, are still as usual,” he said.

The Hercules tragedy added another bloody chapter to the saga of Indonesia’s aviation history, recently marred by many accidents.

JP/Irma/Novan

The deadliest of these was the crash of an Adam Air jet in early 2007 that killed all 102 people on board. The country’s aviation image became so poor that since 2007 the European Union Commission has banned all Indonesian airlines from flying into EU airspace.

Meanwhile, a flight expert and former pilot for Garuda Indonesia, Rendy Sasmita Adjiwibowo, said he believes that engine breakdown was the reason for the Hercules crash.

“If engine failure was the case, then the plane would have never been able to take off in the first
place, and if the engine failure took place during the flight, the pilot would have realized it and shouted ‘mayday’ to the control tower,”
he said.

Rendy said he suspected the failure took place in the secondary flight control components, particularly the plane’s wing flaps.

“The flaps close down as soon as the plane takes off and during flight. When the plane goes for landing, the pilot redeploys the flaps,” he said.

“However, it seems that it was not the case in the Hercules tragedy. There is a possibility that the flaps were accidentally [fully] deployed during the reopening process, thus causing the plane to slam directly into the ground and giving no chance for the pilots to contact the control tower."

Rendy said the flaps had to pass standard security checks before the flight.

“So, the flaps must have met the necessary standards. But, there is a factor called ‘metal fatigue’, which is  technically hard to measure,” he said.

Rendy said "metal fatigue" could happen to any component, regardless of its age. “So, it could happen even on the newest component,” he said. (hdt)

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