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Govt deems flight routes safe following turbulence incidents
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The Transportation Ministry will not issue temporary diversions or flight warnings for routes where severe turbulence recently affected flights by Etihad Airways and Hong Kong Airlines. (Shutterstock.com/Marcin Ky)
T
he Transportation Ministry will issue neither temporary diversions nor flight warnings for routes where flights by Etihad Airways and Hong Kong Airlines recently experienced severe turbulence.
The ministry’s air transportation general director Suprasetyo said the two flights were caught up in clear-air turbulence (CAT), a turbulent movement of air masses when bodies of air moving at widely different speeds meet. It commonly occurs in the high troposphere.
"There is no need to change the routes, we don't even declare those routes as dangerous, since the turbulences rarely appear. One hour after the Etihad incident, other planes passing the same routes did not feel anything," he told thejakartapost.com in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Etihad Airways flight EY-474 from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta was hit by severe turbulence above the Bukit Barisan Mountain in Southern Sumatra on May 4. At least 31 passengers were injured, with some requiring hospital treatment for fractured bones.
On May 7, similar incident happened to Hong Kong Airlines flight HX-6704 from Denpasar to Hong Kong above Eastern Kalimantan, which saw 17 passengers treated for light injuries and three sustaining serious injuries.
"CAT is very difficult to predict. The pilots see nothing there, as the sky is clear as usual. Even the radar cannot detect it. No rainstorm or cumulonimbus clouds appear before it happens," Suprasetyo explained.
He estimated the CAT that struck Etihad’s flight above Bukit Barisan Mountain has a two percent probability, while the one that hit Hong Kong Airlines’ flight above Eastern Kalimantan has a four percent probability. Both were temporary incidents, Suprasetyo highlighted.
"What we can suggest is that the pilot should be more aware about the weather updates and pay more attention to all potential risks," he said. (ags)
