Aviation Community Protests, Fears Ramifications

The arrest this week of the pilot of a Garuda Indonesia 737 that crashed on landing last year was met with protests within the aviation community, and renews the debate over whether commercial pilots should be held criminally responsible for accidents.

The Seattle Times reports Captain Marwoto Komar was arrested Tuesday, and charged with a range of offenses including manslaughter. If convicted, Komar could face five or more years in prison.

As ANN reported, Komar was the captain of a Boeing 737-400 that overshot the runway on landing at Yogyakarta airport in central Java, and slid into a rice field. The aircraft burst into flames, killing 21 people, while 119 others were able to escape through the exits of the burning jet in the March 7, 2007 accident.

Investigators later disclosed Komar ignored repeated warnings -- both from cockpit alarms, and the flight's co-pilot -- that the jet was coming in for landing much too fast. Cockpit recordings indicated the co-pilot had repeatedly called for the captain to abort the landing, and go-around.

In its final report on the crash, released in October 2007, Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) found the pilot was "singing" during the approach, below 10,000 feet and prior to reaching 4,000 feet, which was "not in accordance with the Garuda Basic Operations Manual policy for a sterile cockpit below 10,000 feet.

"The pilot was probably emotionally aroused because his conscious awareness moved from the relaxed mode "singing" to the heightened stressfulness of the desire to reach the runway by making an excessively steep and fast, unstable approach," the report said, adding the pilot was "fixated" on landing the aircraft.

Aviation attorney John Nance, himself a former Alaska Airlines 737 pilot, said the report clearly indicates authorities should "throw the book" at Komar, and make sure he never steps into a cockpit again... but adds Komar shouldn't be charged criminally, for fear it would set a dangerous precedent.

Nance believes the threat of criminal charges would prevent pilots from disclosing all relevant information about an accident to investigators -- resulting in a "chilling effect" on that process.

Roughly 30 commercial pilots staged a protest recently at the Indonesian parliament building in Jakarta, calling for Komar to be tried by a dedicated aviation tribunal, not the Indonesian courts system.

The International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations also stated it was "saddened" to learn of Komar's arrest, according to Russia's Pravda news service.

FMI: www.garuda-indonesia.com/, www.dephub.go.id/knkt/ntsc_home/ntsc.htm