“Accelerate the Improvement of National Flight System”
Wednesday, 02 April, 2008 | 17:31 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Special delegations for flight banning from the European Union led by Jean Pierre Ambrosini, expect Indonesia to accelerate the improvement of its national flight system. This is to assure flight security in Indonesia. They talked about this to Foreign Affairs Minister, Nur Hassan Wirajuda, at the Foreign Affairs Department in Jakarta yesterday.

According to Wirajuda, there is progress that resulted from the meeting regarding the European Union flight banning to Indonesian Airlines. “Both parties agree to strengthen the political and technical good will to solve the problem,” he said. Indonesia and the European Union will have corporate-based cooperation between the countries. For example, cooperation with KLM, the Dutch airline, for international flight cooperation, and with Lufthansa, the German airline, for expertise and technical assistance.

Hassan said, institutional and regulation structuring is needed for the Transportation Department. This will determine the assurance of the flight security system. Wirajuda expected the structuring to be executed soon and the end of banning will not take much longer .

Dudi Sudibyo, aviation expert, said the situation of the Indonesian flight system is due to a lack of discipline of the regulation implementation. For example, the findings of National Flight Safety Commission (KNKT) at the Adam Air accident in Majene, Sulawesi on 1 January 2007, showed the damage record 154 times to the Inertia Reference System (IRS). “It should have anticipated that and forbidden the aircraft from flying,” said Dudi yesterday.

According to Dudi, the national flight regulation is good , but the implementation is lacking in strength. “Once there is a aircraft accident, the airline should be forbidden to fly.” Regarding the flight banning by the European Union, Dudi suggested that the government not be defensive. “Approach the European Union, find out what they want,” he said.

Titis Setianingtyas | Akbar Tri Kurniawan