Flight instructor, students survive emergency landing

SINGARAJA: Flight instructor Capt. Meriam Hagen and two students from the Bali International Flight Academy (BIFA) in Buleleng, North Bali, survived at an emergency landing in a rice field, 4 kilometers from the Blimbingsari airstrip in Banyuwangi, East Java, soon after their Cessna Type 172 training airplane lost power.

“We have not determined the cause of the accident,” BIFA director Wiradharma Bagus Oka told The Jakarta Post at its campus in Gerokgak village, 20 kilometers north of Singaraja.

The two students were accompanied by the American flight instructor when they started their flight training from the Wisnu airstrip in Buleleng at 7 a.m. — JP