China's - Orient Aviation

Garuda pilot ‘ignored 15 GPWS alarms’At press time, Indonesian flagcarrier, Garuda Indonesia,said it would not commenton the National TransportSafety Commission reporton the fatal March 7 crash of one of the carrier’sB737 jets until it had fully studied thereport.The Indonesian safety investigationfound that the accident, which killed 21 of133 passengers and crew onboard whenthe aircraft crashed at Yogykarta Airport,was caused by the pilot ignoring 15 alarmsfrom the ground proximity warning systemand failing “to go around” as the aircraftapproached the runway at too high a speed.It also said the pilot had bypassed the copilot’srequest “to go around” and attempt asecond landing.Head of the transport safety commission,Tatang Kurniadi, said Garuda andother airlines had received a report fromhis organisation that outlined recommendedsystems to improve safety standards. Thereport, in a supplementary section, said theco-pilot may not have received sufficienttraining to cope with aircraft emergencies.Three Indonesian airlines have beeninvolved in recent fatal accidents. Twentysix months ago, a Mandala Airlines B737-200 crashed in Medan, killing 150 people.On January 1 this year, an Adam Air B737-400, carrying 102 passengers, dropped outof the sky over Indonesian waters. Therewere no survivors. Three months later, theGaruda accident occurred at Yogyakarta.Both the pilot and co-pilot survived thecrash and have been grounded, an airlinespokesman said (See Crash could effect liftingof EU ban on Garuda p. 36).Weather blamed for Phuket crashThailand’s National Transpor t Per manent Secretar y, ChaisawartKittipornpaiboon, said de-coding of the “black box” of the One-Two-Goairliner, which crashed at Phuket International Airport two months ago,revealed the fatal accident was caused by bad weather.As chairman of the investigation, Chaisawart said the recordings revealed the flightsuffered from wind shear. The preliminary conclusion indicates the captain tried to pullup the plane before landing. Ninety of the 130 passengers aboard the flight died after theaircraft landed, skidded off the runway and burst into flames.BUSINESS BRIEFS• CHINA Southern Airlines reported a 49% increase in net profitfor its third quarter, to September 30. The Guangzhou-based carriersaid China’s economic growth had boosted profits to 1.88 billionyuan (US$250.5 million) compared with 1.26 billion in thesame three months in 2006.• OASIS Hong Kong Airlines and AirAsia X have secured, orare seeking investors, for their expansion. Hong Kong-based fund,Value Partners, has invested US$30 milion in the Hong Kong longhaulbudget carrier at the same time as existing shareholders havetopped up the airline coffers with HK$200 million (US$25.81 million).All funds raised are for fleet expansion. AIRASIA X, a newlow-cost, long-haul airline, said it planned to raise US$80.3 millionwhen it puts 20% of the carrier up for sale. The Malaysia-based LCCwill launch operations with a Kuala Lumpur-Gold Coast (Australia)service, with seat prices starting at US$235 one way.• ALL Nippon Airways (ANA) has changed its methods used forcalculating aircraft depreciation, which has resulted in a chargeof Y66 billion (US$565 million) for the current fiscal year. ANAsaid the sale of its hotel group earlier this year, for Y130 billion,would offset the loss.• Steve Swift, from Australia’s Civil Aviation SafetyAuthority, received the annual Whittle Safety Award, at an internationalair safety conference in Seoul last month. Swift developed thediamond analytical model to better understand damage tolerance inaircraft and more accurately detect structural fatigue.NOVEMBER 2007 ORIENT AVIATION 11