Airline chief defends dead pilot in Phuket crash

Sep 18, 2007, 8:14 GMT

   Bangkok (dpa) - The Indonesian pilot of the no-frills passenger jet that crashed on the Thai resport island of Phuket on Sunday with the loss of 89 lives was defended Tuesday as a calm, experienced commander by the chairman of One-Two-Go, the airline that owned the plane.

   Several of the surviving passengers have criticised the pilot, 56-year-old Arief Mulyadi, who died in the crash along with his Thai co-pilot, as foolish to attempt to land in hard driving rain and strong crosswinds rather than divert to another airfield.

The pilot appeared to attempt a landing, only to change his mind when the plane was about 100 metres from the runway. According to witnesses, the 25-year-old Macdonnell Douglas MD-82 jet appeared to rise slightly before crashing into the ground, skidding, breaking in half and bursting into flames.

   'He was not hot-headed by character and had plenty of aviation experience under his belt ... The pilot who flew the doomed aircraft was one of our best. He was very experienced, patient and very decisive,' One-Two-Go Airline chairman Kajit Hapananont told the Bangkok post.

'There was no way of knowing in advance what sort of obstacles lay ahead for any pilot. What do people who have reached their own conclusions on the crash use as facts on which to base their presumptions on? The black boxes are still here and have yet to be sent to the United States for experts to examine,' he added.

The dead pilot worked for two now defunct Indonesian airlines before joining the Thai carrier, according to reports from Jakarta.

   The air traffic controller on duty at Phuket airport at the time of the crash, who talked the pilot down, has been sent to Bhumibol Aeronautical Hospital to be tested to see if he is mentally fit to continue duty, said Kamthorn Sirikorn, deputy director of the Thailand's Aeronautical Department. There was no suggestion at that the controller did anything wrong. It was merely routine, he added.

   Police forensic officers have identified 53 of the 89 bodies from the crash, including 21 of 53 foreigners, said Police Major General Santhan Chayanont, who is in charge of the crash site, speaking on local television Tuesday.

Most of the remaining bodies will require DNA testing, which means that relatives will have to provide body samples, such as hair or fingerprints, for forensics experts to match up, General Santhan added.

The 89 dead included Thais, Americans, Israelis, French, Swedes, Iranians, Australians and at least one German.

The authorities and officials of the airline have so far blamed the severe weather conditions, but some passengers have pointed out that driving rain and high winds are common during the typhoon season so the authorities and the airline should have contingency plans in place.

Several aviation experts said it was likely the crash will lead to a temporary turning away by customers from low-cost airlines, which have expanded rapidly in Asia in recent years. There have been veiled suggestions that in the scramble to capture market position in a young 'no frills' industry some carriers may have been tempted to take safety short cuts.

   The Sydney-based Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation reported earlier this year that no frills airlines in the region were struggling to find planes and pilots to keep up with burgeoning demand. The consultancy had a policy of not commenting on airline crashes.    Indonesia has acquired a poor reputation because of several air crashes in recent years following the rise of dozens of apparently poorly regulated small airlines. But the fact that in the Phuket crash the pilot was Indonesia means nothing, said One-to-Go's Kajit.

'The reason why more than half of our pilots are non-Thais is because not very many (pilots) can fly an MD plane. We are the only company using this type of aircraft, and that's why we employ several Indonesian pilots because they have lots of MD's there, he said.'

   The transcript of the conversation between the control tower and the pilot shows that the pilot was warned about wind shear but had decided to land anyway, said the air transport department's director general Chaisak Ungsuwan on Thai television. 'The last word the pilot said was 'landing',' he added.

   This is Thailand's worst air disaster since 1998 when a Thailand Airways International jet ploughed into an airfield in southern Thailand with the loss of 101 lives - also in driving rain.