Garuda Indonesia Flight 200
Encyclopedia
Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 (GA200) was the scheduled domestic passenger flight of a Boeing 737-497 operated by Garuda Indonesia
Garuda Indonesia
PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk , publicly known as Garuda Indonesia, is the flag carrier of Indonesia. It is named after the mystical giant bird Garuda of Hinduism and Buddhist mythology. It is headquartered at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, near Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia...

 between Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

 and Yogyakarta
Yogyakarta (city)
Yogyakarta is a city in the Yogyakarta Special Region, Indonesia. It is renowned as a centre of classical Javanese fine art and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry, and puppet shows. Yogyakarta was the Indonesian capital during the Indonesian National Revolution from 1945 to...

, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. The aircraft crashed and burst into flames while landing at Adisucipto International Airport
Adisucipto International Airport
Adisucipto International Airport is the principal airport serving the Yogyakarta area on the island of Java, Indonesia....

 on March 7, 2007. According to the airline, 21 passengers and 1 crew member were killed; both the captain and the first officer survived and were admitted to an Indonesian military hospital.

Aircraft

The aircraft was a Boeing 737-400
Boeing 737 Classic
The Boeing 737 Classic is the name given to the -300/-400/-500 series of the Boeing 737 following the introduction of the -600/-700/-800/-900 series. They are short- to medium- range, narrow-body jet airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The Classic series was introduced as the 'new...

, registered as PK-GZC, which had been operated by three airline
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...

s, including Aloha Airlines
Aloha Airlines
Aloha Airlines was an American airline headquartered in Honolulu CDP, City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, operating from a hub at Honolulu International Airport...

, Star Europe and Jet Airways
Jet Airways
Jet Airways is a major Indian airline based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is India's largest airline and the market leader in the domestic sector. It operates over 400 flights daily to 76 destinations worldwide. Its main hub is Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, with secondary hubs at Delhi,...

. The aircraft had a total of 35,157 airframe hours and 37,328 cycles since its first flight on 5 November 1992.

Garuda Indonesia

Garuda Indonesia was recently noted for its improved safety, having not had a major accident for the past decade. The oldest airline in Indonesia (founded in 1949), Garuda Indonesia had received a number of criticisms in the months surrounding the crash. According to Australian aviation
Aviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...

 experts, Garuda Indonesia had one of the worst safety records among the world's national carriers. Since 1950, Garuda Indonesia has had 14 major accidents with the most recent in 1997, when Garuda Indonesia Flight 152
Garuda Indonesia Flight 152
Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 was a scheduled domestic Indonesian passenger flight from Jakarta to Medan Sumatra operated by state owned flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. On September 26, 1997, the Airbus A300 flying this route, registered PK-GAI, crashed into woodlands 29 km from Medan in low...

 crashed 18 miles off Medan Airport
Polonia International Airport
Polonia International Airport is located in the city of Medan, Indonesia, about 5 km from the Central Business District. It is the first international airport in Medan, the other being the planned Kuala Namu International Airport...

 in Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

, killing all 234 passengers. The managing director of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Peter Harbison, stated that the major accidents in Indonesian aviation history were all caused by the combinations of airports' and fleets' low safety standards and the poor weather conditions in the area, including severe thunderstorm
Thunderstorm
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, thundershower or simply a storm is a form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere known as thunder. The meteorologically assigned cloud type associated with the...

s and other forms of inclement weather
Weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...

.

Flight chronology

Flight GA200 originated in Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

 and was carrying 133 passengers, 19 of whom were foreigners. Several Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n journalists were on the flight, covering the visit of Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Australia)
In the Government of Australia, the Minister for Foreign Affairs is responsible for overseeing the international diplomacy section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In common with international practice, the office is often informally referred to as Foreign Minister...

 Alexander Downer
Alexander Downer
Alexander John Gosse Downer is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, the longest-serving in Australian history...

 and Attorney-General
Attorney-General of Australia
The Attorney-General of Australia is the first law officer of the Crown, chief law officer of the Commonwealth of Australia and a minister of the Crown. The Attorney-General is usually a member of the Federal Cabinet, but there is no constitutional requirement that this be the case since the...

 Philip Ruddock
Philip Ruddock
Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician who is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Berowra, New South Wales, for the Liberal Party of Australia...

 to Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

. They were on the flight as the aircraft carrying Australian dignitaries were at capacity.

At approximately 7 am local time (UTC+7
UTC+7
UTC+07:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +07:00. In ISO 8601 the associated time would be written as .Also known as Indochina Time , it is used in:-As standard time :*Australia...

), while attempting to land at Adisucipto International Airport
Adisucipto International Airport
Adisucipto International Airport is the principal airport serving the Yogyakarta area on the island of Java, Indonesia....

, Yogyakarta
Yogyakarta (city)
Yogyakarta is a city in the Yogyakarta Special Region, Indonesia. It is renowned as a centre of classical Javanese fine art and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry, and puppet shows. Yogyakarta was the Indonesian capital during the Indonesian National Revolution from 1945 to...

, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, the plane overran the end of the runway, went through the perimeter fence and stopped in a nearby rice field after it bounced three times. Passengers in the plane and witnesses on the ground reported the plane approached the runway at a speed greater than normal. According to passengers, the plane shook violently before it crashed. At some point the plane caught fire, and while most passengers were able to escape, a number of passengers perished inside the burning fuselage. This may have been caused by the broken main exit door, which is located at the front left. The fire may have been ignited from the nose landing gear after its wheels were snapped off, which were found later on the runway.

The pilot, Captain Muhammad Marwoto Komar, claimed that there was a sudden downdraft
Vertical draft
An updraft or downdraft is the vertical movement of air as a weather related phenomenon. One of two forces causes the air to move. Localized regions of warm or cool air will exhibit vertical movement. A mass of warm air will typically be less dense than the surrounding region, and so will rise...

 immediately before the flight landed, and that the flaps on the aircraft may have malfunctioned.

Aftermath

One of the passengers was a cameraman for the Australian Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...

. He escaped from the burning wreckage with his camera and started filming the aftermath. He made a telephone call to inform the network's Sydney newsroom and the footage was beamed back to appear on the 6pm news of that night. This exclusive footage was viewed all over the world. Australian Federal Police
Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police is the federal police agency of the Commonwealth of Australia. Although the AFP was created by the amalgamation in 1979 of three Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, it traces its history from Commonwealth law enforcement agencies dating back to the federation of...

 agents Brice Steele and Mark Scott, Australian Embassy staffers Liz O'Neill
Elizabeth O'Neill
Elizabeth O'Neill OAM, was a Counsellor for the Public Affairs department of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in service of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She was killed on 7 March 2007 in the crash of Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The Elizabeth O'Neill...

 (public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

 officer) and Allison Sudradjat
Allison Sudradjat
Allison Sudradjat was AusAID's Minister Counsellor in Indonesia. Sudradjat was born in Narrogin, Western Australia, in 1966 to Kevin and Elaine Keevil. She was awarded a scholarship to Perth College, where she studied Indonesian, before winning an undergraduate scholarship to the Australian...

 (Minister Counsellor and Senior Representative of AusAID), and Australian Financial Review newspaper journalist Morgan Mellish
Morgan Mellish
Henry Morgan Saxon Mellish , better known as Morgan Mellish, was an Australian journalist.Mellish was educated at Shore School in North Sydney...

 were among those killed.

Investigation

Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 was heavily involved in the investigation in which the Australian Federal Police
Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police is the federal police agency of the Commonwealth of Australia. Although the AFP was created by the amalgamation in 1979 of three Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, it traces its history from Commonwealth law enforcement agencies dating back to the federation of...

 disaster victim identification experts were deployed to the scene to assist with the identification of bodies. Australian Transport Safety Bureau
Australian Transport Safety Bureau
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is Australia’s national transport safety investigator. The ATSB is the federal government body responsible for investigating transport-related accidents and incidents within Australia. It covers air, sea and rail travel. The Australian Transport Safety...

 staff assisted at the scene by inspecting the wreckage to attempt to piece together a picture of the incident. The "black box
Black Box (transportation)
The term black box is a placeholder name used casually to refer to a collection of several different recording devices used in transportation: the flight recorders in aircraft, the event recorder in railway locomotives, the event data recorder in automobiles, message case in ships, and other...

" recorders consisting of a flight data recorder
Flight data recorder
A flight data recorder is an electronic device employed to record any instructions sent to any electronic systems on an aircraft. It is a device used to record specific aircraft performance parameters...

 and cockpit voice recorder
Cockpit voice recorder
A cockpit voice recorder , often referred to as a "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flight deck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents...

 were removed from the wreckage and flown to Canberra, Australia, for further analysis by the Bureau of Air Safety Investigations using equipment not yet available in Indonesia. The United States' National Transportation Safety Board
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents, certain types of highway crashes, ship and marine...

 dispatched a team to assist in the investigation, including representatives from Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

 and the Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...

. Staff in Australia could not read the cockpit voice recorder of the black box, which was then sent to the Boeing factory in Seattle, United States, to be deciphered.

Police started the investigation of the pilots, who had been suspended and were suffering from psychological trauma after the inferno. According to the pilots, a huge gust of wind was responsible for the disaster, while witnesses said that the plane was at a higher than normal speed during landing. Police were said to be investigating the possibility of a detonator inside the aircraft, with Police spokesman Budi Santoso saying "About a suspicion of a detonator might have been found inside the ill-fated plane, we are still investigating it. To prove it, it will take a long time, and the police are still collecting evidence both from witnesses' information and from objects found from the plane wreckage,".

After the flight data and black box recordings were analyzed, and a complete safety review of the airport was conducted, it was revealed that the Yogyakarta Airport did not conform to international safety standards, having a runway runoff a quarter the recommended length; pilots reported the reverse thrust of one engine was not working prior to takeoff; the weather was calm, contradicting claims of an updraft; data recordings revealed no mechanical fault before landing; black box recordings revealed there was no cockpit argument, as reported; safety vehicles were unable to reach the crash site in sufficient time, failing to conform to global safety standards.

On 17 March 2007, new evidence from the flight data recorder indicated that wing flaps on the plane were not extended for landing. New evidence came up on April 1, 2007 and it is reported that the pilot and co-pilot were arguing about the plane's speed, but other reports said there was no evidence for this.

On 11 April 2007, Indonesia's National Safety Transport Committee released a preliminary finding into the crash, confirming that Garuda Flight 200 was travelling at around 410 km/h - almost twice the normal speed - when it came in to land. A Garuda Pilots' Association official has speculated that the captain could have been trying to save fuel due to a new fuel conservation bonus scheme recently introduced by Garuda Airlines.

On October 22, 2007, the official enquiry blamed the crash on pilot error. The captain ignored the plane’s automated warning system as it sounded alarms fifteen times. He also ignored calls from the co-pilot to go around and make another approach.

On 4 February 2008 the captain, Marwoto Komar, was arrested and charged with six counts of manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...

. The charge carries a penalty up to life imprisonment if the court finds the crash was deliberate. Short of that finding, the lesser charge of negligent flying causing death, carries a maximum sentence of seven-years. The copilot testified that he had told the captain to go around because of excessive speed, and that he then had blacked out due to the severe buffeting.
On 6 April 2009, the captain was found guilty of negligence and sentenced to 2 years in jail.
Despite all evidence pointing towards severe pilot error, the captain's conviction was quashed by the Indonesian High Court on September 29, 2009.

Change of Flight Number

Garuda has changed the flight number from GA 200 to GA 202 to avoid superstition or fear based on the flight numbers. GA 200 normally left Jakarta at around 6.15 AM (the first flight out of Jakarta bound for Yogyakarta). GA 202 now leaves at 6am.

See also

  • Air safety
    Air safety
    Air safety is a term encompassing the theory, investigation and categorization of flight failures, and the prevention of such failures through regulation, education and training. It can also be applied in the context of campaigns that inform the public as to the safety of air travel.-United...

  • Ground effect in aircraft
  • Pilot error
    Pilot error
    Pilot error is a term used to describe the cause of an accident involving an airworthy aircraft where the pilot is considered to be principally or partially responsible...

  • List of notable accidents and incidents on commercial aircraft
  • Runway safety area
    Runway safety area
    A runway safety area or runway end safety area is defined as "the surface surrounding the runway prepared or suitable for reducing the risk of damage to airplanes in the event of an undershoot, overshoot, or excursion from the runway."Past standards called for the RSA to extend only 60m from the...

  • Engineered materials arrestor system
    Engineered Materials Arrestor System
    An engineered materials arrestor system or engineered materials arresting system is a bed of engineered materials built at the end of a runway. Engineered materials are defined in FAA Advisory Circular No 150/5220-22A as "high energy absorbing materials of selected strength, which will reliably...

  • SilkAir Flight 185
    SilkAir Flight 185
    SilkAir Flight 185, a Boeing 737-36N, registration 9V-TRF, was a scheduled passenger flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Singapore, which crashed on 19 December 1997 into the Musi River after abruptly plunging from its 35,000-foot cruise altitude, killing all 97 passengers and 7 crew on board.The...

  • Garuda Indonesia Flight 152
    Garuda Indonesia Flight 152
    Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 was a scheduled domestic Indonesian passenger flight from Jakarta to Medan Sumatra operated by state owned flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. On September 26, 1997, the Airbus A300 flying this route, registered PK-GAI, crashed into woodlands 29 km from Medan in low...


External links


} Media Release - Laporan Akhir KNKT Penyelidikan Kecelakaan Pesawat Boeing 737 Garuda Indonesia GA200 di Yogyakarta, tanggal 7 Maret 2007 (Archive)
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK