Anyone's Airliner Missing A Part?

Here's a mystery from Indonesia. Officials discovered a piece from an airliner this week on the runway at Jakarta's Sukarno-Hatta International Airport... and they're not sure where the part came from.

The 10-foot-long part -- reportedly an engine cowling, according to various descriptions --was found Tuesday, senior Indonesian air transport official Yurlis Hasibuan told The Associated Press.

"It has been identified as a side engine cover, but we do not yet know which plane it came from," he said.

The runway on which the missing part was found on is used by domestic carriers, as well as some international cargo operators.

So far, no carriers have come forward to claim the part, Wahyu Supriantono, chairman of the Indonesian Aircraft Technicians Association, told Reuters.

"From the serial number printed on the piece, we know that it is a part of the wing but we cannot trace the owner of the plane with the number," Supriantono said.

While it's not known whether the part came from an Indonesian plane in this latest incident, such occurrences aren't a rarity.

Last month, a similar-sized component departed an Indonesian 737 shortly after takeoff from Jakarta... the latest in a string of incidents plaguing that country's airline industry, including a series of fatal accidents earlier this year that claimed 120 lives.

The European Union blacklisted Indonesian airlines from operating in the EU, and the FAA downgraded the country's rating to its lowest category on reports of shoddy maintenance, corruption and a shortage of qualified maintenance personnel.

FMI: www.dephub.go.id/knkt/ntsc_home/ntsc.htm