Garuda airlines pilot faces life imprisonment
Updated
The Garuda Airlines pilot who crash-landed a passenger jet in Yogyakarta last year faces the prospect of life imprisonment if found guilty at his trial which begins today.
The pilot faces charges of deliberate destruction and killing, and criminal negligence. Five Australians were among the 21 people killed in the crash. Aviation safety experts, pilot advocates and relatives of those killed say putting the pilot in prison will not address the airport deficiencies which exacerbated the disaster.
Presenter: Geoff Thompson
Speaker: Colin Weir, Flight Safety Pty Ltd; Caroline Mellish, the sister of Australian Financial Review journalist Morgan Mellish who was killed in the Yogyakarta
(Sounds of the plane crash)
GEOFF THOMPSON: As the blazing and broken wreck of Garuda Flight 200 burns behind them, terrified air stewards scrambled to help passengers in news pictures which were screened around the world in the hours after the crash on March the 7th last year.
The aircraft accident investigation report found that the pilot Marwoto Komar was so "fixated" on landing the jet that he ignored 15 automated warnings and the entreaties of his co-pilot to "go around" and attempt to land again.
Reports today suggest that Komar has told police investigators that the plane was "running wild" and because it was difficult to bring the jet's nose up again, it was "impossible to go around".
Colin Weir of the Queensland based aviation safety auditing firm Flight Safety Pty Ltd, says that another crucial factor contributing to the crash is the fact the Yogyakarta airport was effectively unlicensed at the time, because, put simply, its runway is too short and he says the same disaster would occur again if a jet landed today at the same speed.
COLIN WEIR: We carried out an audit about three weeks ago and the runway and safety area has not been extended.
They have put a gate in the fence at the end, on the end of the runway where the accident happened, and they've built a little road that goes up the side that would allow access to a runway and safety area if it was going to be extended, but the extension has not happened.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Pilot Marwoto Komar is facing five main charges and other subsidiary offences mostly alleging criminal negligence causing death. But the most serious charge - carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison - accuses him of causing death by deliberately destroying an aircraft.
Caroline Mellish lost her brother Morgan in the Yogyakarta crash.
CAROLINE MELLISH: Someone else higher than him also needs to be taking accountability for it, whether it be Garuda as such or Indonesian aviation as a whole.
GEOFF THOMPSON: This pilot is facing very serious charges. He could even get a life sentence. Would you consider that justice? Would you consider that to be a resolution of the issues which led to the death of your brother?
CAROLINE MELLISH: No. I think obviously he was flying the plane and was responsible for the crash in a lot of respects, but there's far greater issues in regards to aviation in Indonesia, in regards to safety surrounding airports, in regards to pilot training. By putting him in jail it just says that he was the only person responsible, so that's not justice, as it were.
