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strong>April 14, p5

A foreign plane, which has been grounded for four days after entering Indonesian airspace without authorization, was released on Sunday after its pilot and owner paid a fine of Rp 60 million (US$5,256).

The red civil aircraft, which was flown by Swiss national Heinz Pieter, took off from Soewondo Air Force Base in Medan, North Sumatra, at 9:45 a.m. heading toward Seletar Airport in Singapore.

Your comments:

I would assume that everyone gets their share. It'€™s funny how they didn'€™t notice the huge Boeing 777 wandering about.

Sheldon Archer

They can detect a small two-seater plane built from a kit yet they cannot detect a large passenger plane.

The two-seater homebuilt hobby '€œkit plane'€ pilot claimed he was lost; well, not many '€œkit planes'€ would come with navigation equipment, as '€œkit planes'€ are really not meant for travelling internationally.

Maybe the pilot purchased the '€œkit plane'€ through eBay in kit form, or it was previously built and bought second hand already put together.

The Swearingen SX-300 is a high-performance homebuilt aircraft featuring two seats developed by Ed Swearingen of San Antonio, Texas during the 1980s.

The aircraft was offered as a kit, but the kit was not a comprehensive kit like contemporary designs and its construction was beyond the abilities of the average amateur aircraft builder.

The plane featured a 300 horsepower (220 kW) six-cylinder engine.

The fine of Rp 60 million may have been just a small incidental expenditure in his quest to fly around the world in a two-seater '€œkit plane'€.

Eddy

Did they contact the pilot through radio and ask him to land or did they send up the fighters first?

He'€™s lucky they didn'€™t shoot him down.  

I expect the government to recall the ambassador from Berne and downgrade relations for breaching the sovereignty of Indonesia.

Peter