Jakarta 'could shut down some airlines'

The Straits Times, March 16, 2007


JAKARTA - INDONESIA'S new air transport chief Budhi Muliawan Suyitno will step up the monitoring of airlines and could shut down some of them.

'In the near future, hopefully some (domestic airlines) will be closed down,' he was quoted by the Detikcom news website as saying.

He added that his department would intensify the monitoring of airline operations and look again at the age of aircraft in Indonesia, as around half were more than two decades old.

Mr Suyitno replaced the last air transport chief on Tuesday amid pressure for better safety in Indonesia's skies after a Garuda Indonesia airliner crash-landed last Wednesday in Yogyakarta and burst into flames, killing 21.

The disaster was Indonesia's second major aviation tragedy this year.

On New Year's Day, an Adam Air plane plunged into the sea, killing 102 people.

Its wreckage and in-flight recorders now still lie on the seabed amid a dispute over who should recover them - a delay that experts say may jeopardise global air safety.

Meanwhile, Garuda Indonesia was expected yesterday to begin compensating families who lost relatives in last Wednesday's crash.

'We will begin to present the compensation of 600 million rupiah to the families of each of the dead victims,' said Garuda Indonesia spokesman Singgih Handoyo.

The amount is equivalent to S$100,000.

The airline had paid cash compensation of a little more than US$2,700 (S$4,100) to most of the survivors, he said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS