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Engine failure may have caused Riau airplane crash
Doomed flight: Police personnel carry a body bag containing debris and belongings recovered from an aircraft carrying 13 police personnel that went missing on Saturday in Batam, Riau Islands
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span class="caption">Doomed flight: Police personnel carry a body bag containing debris and belongings recovered from an aircraft carrying 13 police personnel that went missing on Saturday in Batam, Riau Islands.(Antara/Reuters/MN Kanwa)
While the National Police have claimed they are still investigating the recent crash of a Skytruck M28 plane, which was carrying 13 people, initial evidence has indicated that engine failure could have causedthe explosion of the police-owned aircraft.
The aircraft, which was flying from Pondok Cabe air base in South Tangerang to Hang Nadim Airport in Batam, reportedly crashed in waters near Lingga regency, Riau, on Saturday, after making a stop at Pangkal Pinang Airport in Bangka.
“Before the airplane went down, local people heard a loud explosion in the air. They found debris like airplane parts and several human body parts in the area,” Tanjungpinang Navy commander in Riau, First Adm. S. Irawan, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Riau Police chief Sr. Comr. Sambudi Gusdian said four local fishermen saw the airplane flying low and circling the area several minutes before it crashed into the water.
“The sound of the plane’s engine was heard going on and off before it crashed and exploded in the sea,” Sambudi said, adding the four fishermen approached the site of the crash and found human body parts, clothes and plane seats.
National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said the police had yet to reach a final conclusion on the cause of the crash, but aviation expert Arista Atmadjati from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta said in most plane crashes if there is an explosion, it is caused by engine failure.
“If it is true that there was an explosion then the cause was most likely engine failure. The information on the existence of an explosion before the plane fell down strengthens arguments that it was most likely caused by engine failure,” Arista told the Post.
The airplane took off from Pondok Cabe carrying 16 crew members and passengers. Three personnel got off the plane at Pangkal Pinang airport before it continued its journey, heading toward Batam with the remaining 13 people on board.
The aircraft departed from Pangkal Pinang at 9:24 a.m. local time and was scheduled to arrive in Batam at 10:58 a.m., but a Singaporean radar detected the airplane as missing from its radar at 10:15 a.m.
The Navy had dispatched three ships and two patrol vessels in the area to clear the wreckage of the airplane.
On Sunday, the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) handed over three plastic bags containing parts of human bodies found by Basarnas at the site of the crash to the Riau Police hospital for identification. No victims were successfully identified as of Sunday.
Families of the victims also visited the hospital to provide physical descriptions of the victims.
Separately, in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, family members of the plane’s pilot, Tonce Manao, said they accepted his fate.
“We are from a family that can only accept fate over the loss of our son and his colleagues. We accepted the accident as a test from God,” said Tonce’s father Alexander Manao in Kupang on Sunday.
It is not the first time that this model of airplane has crashed. In 2009, Papuan police lost contact with one of their Skytruck M28 planes on a flight from Sentani Airport in Jayapura to Mulia Airport in Puncak Jaya.
One year after the incident, another Skytruck airplane owned by the police and carrying five crew members went missing in Nabire, Papua, after taking off at the Nabire airport en route to Ambon on Oct. 27, 2010.
Arista said the Riau accident should serve as a lesson for the police to be transparent and open in the maintenance of aircraft.
So far, the police have maintained their own aircraft without seeking help from related institutions such as the Transportation Ministry.
“It is difficult for civil investigators to be involved in auditing the cause of the crash. So that’s why in the future the police or the military should work together with outside agencies such as the Transportation Ministry so that civil auditors can give them input with regard to maintenance,” Arista said.
