'Absent mindedness' in Garuda crash

The Straits Times, April 1, 2007


CANBERRA - Two pilots had been arguing moments before their Garuda Airlines passenger jet crashed last month at an Indonesian airport, leaving 21 people dead, a senior investigator said in a television interview broadcast.

The Boeing 737-400 caught fire after overshooting the runway on landing at Yogyakarta airport on March 7.

Chief investigator Tatang Kurniadi said his preliminary findings would point to human error and 'absent-mindedness' as the cause of the disaster.

'I worry that this accident came from the absent-mindedness from the cockpit,' Mr Kurniadi said on the Nine Network television broadcast Sunday. -- AP