Faulty door forces Indon jet to make emergency landing

The Straits Times, June 6, 2007


JAKARTA - AN INDONESIAN passenger plane was forced to make an emergency landing on Wednesday due to a faulty door seal which resulted in a drop in cabin pressure but no one was injured.

A Boeing 737-300 of Garuda Indonesia's Citilink unit was en route from Jakarta to Batam near Singapore when the pilot decided to make an emergency landing in Palembang, South Sumatra, Garuda spokesman Singgih Handoyo told AFP.

'It was a leaking rubber seal on the cargo door and since there was a resulting drop in cabin pressure, the pilot decided to land at the nearest airport,' Mr Handoyo said.

He said none of the 85 people on board was injured.

The incident comes after a series of air accidents in Indonesia in recent months.

A Garuda plane crashed into a runway in Central Java in March, bursting into flames and killing 21 people.

The government says it is trying to improve passenger protection in the archipelago nation of 17,000 islands, which depends on air and sea links. -- AFP