The most guilty party in the March 2007 crash of a Garuda 737 at Yogyakarta which killed 5 Australians escaped punishment in Indonesia today.
That party was the airline, Garuda, which failed miserably in its responsibility to maintain and enforce the necessary standards in pilot training and checking.
Instead the panel of five judges, one dissenting, found the Captain of the flight, Marwoto Komar, guilty of negligence and sentenced him to two years jail.
Komar is lodging an appeal. There is no reason from the evidence to dispute the verdict. Komar flew the landing at Yogyaka at twice the normal speed and disregarded multiple cockpit warmings and the pleadings of his co pilot to abandon the landing and go around.
However in international law airlines are held responsible for flight standards. And Garuda is a disgrace in this regard, and ought to have been in the dock, in the form of key management, to answer for their inability to prevent their standards falling to a level where a person like Captain Komar can be entrusted with the command of a jet and fly in it such an appalling manner.
7 Comments
When he crashed landed, he must have had the stabilizer trim up too high as well, because most of the people that died were sitting in the back.
Bree,
I appreciate your comment, however one of my colleagues was burned to death trapped in the first row of seats and another was severely burned only a metre or so away. Death finds us in unexpected and unlikely places. Komar flew the jet like a mad man. But where are the people responsible for standards at Garuda, who allowed such appalling standards to prevail in their flight operations?
I agree Ben. Komar’s sentence of 2 years jail is not long enough. He should be jailed for 20 years at least, with a non-parole period of 15 years. Also, I find it odd at how Komar managed to survive when others in the front rows died.
Ben, I would suggest that the blame lies a lot higher than the airline even. It is the regulator that is ultimately responsible for aviation safety. The regulator would be only too aware that Garuda, as well as other airlines within Indonesia, are sadly lacking when it comes to their safety standards (other forms of transport within Indonesia appear no different). Sadly, I doubt you will ever see the regulator being held to account, because this would be a major embarrassment to the many political figures who wield influence within this sphere of government. Ipso facto, a “sacrificial lamb” has been proffered in order to protect those who, in reality, had some very serious questions to answer.
Interesting edit, how can I contact you?
Must say I’m a little sceptical about what has transpired in this case. Komar has a fairly long flying career (is it 20 odd years?) and must have several thousand hours of piloting experience under his belt. He has probably been pilot-in-command of hundreds or thousands of take-off/landing cycles in a 737. It begs the question of how such an experienced pilot would deviate from what he has routinely done so many times – not in some minor way but in a very major way. To me the facts in this case just don’t add up and I wouldn’t be surprised if the plane’s airworthiness was sub-standard or a lack of wind shear warnings at Yogykarta airport were causal factors that have been conveniently ignored, to prevent further tarnishing of Garuda or Indonesia’s reputation, and Komar is simply being made a scapegoat.
Ben, I strongly agree with Chris that Komar is being made a scapegoat. No doubt he has somehow made a terible error in judgement and only he knows what was going on in his head on that awful day, but not enough has been made public about the fact that the airport at Yogykarta was simply not licensed on that day and the months before the crash. It still isn’t despite our Government allocating $12 Million to fix it.
Garuda knew about it. The airport authority knew about it. And most distressingly, particularly as one of the victims brother, our government both knew about it then and still know now that nothing has been done to this day, yet chose to shut up and not upset ‘relations’ with the Indonesian Governmnet. Our people are still landing at the unsafe airport.