[Marinir] Indonesia Digest; No. 02.07 ; 16 -01 - '07

[Yap Hong Gie]

INDONESIA DIGEST
Indonesia's complex Issues in a Nutshell
By: Ms. Wuryastuti Sunario
Published by: TBSC-Strategic Communication
No.: 02.07 - Dated: 16 January 2007

In this issue:

MAIN FEATURE:

            ADAM AIR JETLINER STILL MISSING, NATIONAL FLIGHT SAFETY 
TIGHTENED

NEWS AND BACKGROUND:

1.       Health, Culture and the Environment:
·         Indonesia Bans Backyard Poultry Farming to Break Bird Flu chain

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MAIN FEATURE:

            ADAM AIR JETLINER STILL MISSING, NATIONAL FLIGHT SAFETY 
TIGHTENED

Sixteen days into the disappearance of the Adam Air Boeing 737-400 jetliner, 
until today the exact whereabouts of the plane has yet to be pinpointed. 
KI-574, on what was a routine direct flight, departed Surabaya for Manado 
with 96 passengers (among whom 3 American citizens) and 6 crew on board. At 
15.07 West Indonesia Time, the plane inexplicably fell off the radar screen 
of the aircraft control tower at Makassar airport. Its last position before 
its mysterious disappearance was 85 nautical miles (157.42 km) northwest of 
Makassar, South Sulawesi. The pilot had sent no mayday signal, except to 
report that the flight was experiencing 80 mph crosswinds.

After days of untiring and intensive scouring by search and rescue teams 
over a vast area of sea and rugged landscapes, and covering ever wider 
areas, finally the first sign of a possible plane fuselage was reported 
caught on sonar by Indonesia's Navy ship KRI Fatahillah. At the ocean floor 
in the deep Makassar Straits, the ship had detected three large pieces of 
metal objects off Mamuju in West Sulawesi, at a depth of between 1,000 to 
1,500 meters below sea level. However, the ship's sonar was not able to 
identify whether these chunks were indeed parts of the missing plane. 
Subsequent help in the form of more sophisticated equipment came from the US 
Navy Ship Mary Sears, but the depth of the sea was such, that even these 
more technologically advanced equipment on the US ship could not reach this 
depth. The United States then sent the more advanced "hydrophone" to arrive 
here on Tuesday, 16 January, while Singapore added more advanced "towed 
pinger locator" (TPL) to receive signals from the underwater locator beacon 
(ULB) attached to a plane's data flight recorder or black box.


Last week on Wednesday, 10 January, the first real breakthrough came when a 
fisherman named Bakri reported that a strange foreign metal object was 
caught in his fish trap on the shores of the village of Barru, South 
Sulawesi, some 300 meters away from the beach.  When police and officials 
rushed to the scene and transported this finding to Makassar, authorities 
confirmed that the piece of metal was indeed the tail horizontal stabilizer 
of the missing aircraft, which was confirmed by the number visible on the 
stabilizer that matched precisely the spare-part number in the Boeing 
catalogue.

The following days, more than 100 pieces of metal and other aircraft debris 
drifted in and were found on the beaches between towns of Barru and Parepare 
along the western shore of South Sulawesi, located south of the towns of 
Majene and Mamuju. Head of the Makassar Airport and Chief of the Search 
Mission, Air Force Marshall Eddy Suyanto confirmed that these included life 
jackets, cushion's rubber foam, the aircraft trim elevator, parts of its 
wings, and mangled food trays. However, not all pieces found were confirmed 
as having originated from the missing Adam Air plane.

Nonetheless, the most important part of the aircraft, -  its fuselage where 
the passengers could be found, was still undetected.  By now, the search had 
been intensified to find the plane's black box or data flight recorder in 
the sea,  that could explain what had actually happened to the ill-fated 
aircraft in the last 30 minutes of its flight. The battery of the black box 
is said to be able to last 30 days only, which allows searchers a window of 
two short weeks only to find it.

Was an air explosion the cause of the Adam Air plane disintegration?

The pieces of metal and other debris that were found on the beach elicited 
speculations from both experts and amateurs alike. Could an explosion have 
been the cause of the plane's disaster?

However, chief of the Military Command at Pare-pare, Colonel Pranoto, 
rejected the theory that a bomb or a fire had caused the accident. His 
conclusion was based on the fact that none of the debris that was found here 
showed traces of fire. Besides, said Colonel Mustofa Adi Pranoto, debris 
from an explosion was usually recognizable by sharp or jagged points, which 
these did not have. For example, a seat passenger food tray that was found, 
was mangled but did not appear to have been in an explosion. The mangled 
pieces must have gone through some violent pressure, which is possible if 
the plane had disintegrated either upon impact on entering the water or 
indeed through extremely strong pressures of currents at the bottom of the 
sea. It is also most telling that the debris were found nearly 10 days after 
the accident, while no floating debris were detected on the days immediately 
after the accident.
This would indicate that the pieces had slowly surfaced from the bottom of 
the sea to finally beach on land.

If the plane had gone down into the deep trench at Mamuju where the large 
chunks of metal were detected by sonar, it could very well be that strong 
currents had driven the lighter pieces south to the beaches at Pare Pare and 
Barru.  Another indication that the accident had occurred in the waters of 
the Makassar Straits and that the plane had not exploded in the air, was 
that pieces would be scattered around a large radius over sea and land. But 
the fact is that until today, not one single piece of metal from the plane 
had been found on land, despite intensive search parties having combed 
nearby locations days earlier.

In the latest developments, Indonesian Air Force planes reported having 
detected an oil spill in the middle of the sea. As the spill was said to be 
clean and not tainted by water, which is characteristic of jet fuel or 
avtur, it would appear that the fuel spill must have come from the missing 
Adam Air plane. Are searchers closer to finding the main fuselage of the 
doomed plane? The fact that no trace of any passenger had been found until 
today would indicate that the plane fuselage's was lying at the bottom of 
the sea.

Setyo Rahardjo, Chief of the National Transportation Safety Board, told AP 
that the chances are small that the Boeing 737 had blown up because search 
and rescue teams had not found burnt wreckage or human remains since New 
Year's Day, when the Adam Air plane went missing.
"We have only found little pieces of aircraft which indicates the main body 
of the aircraft is at the bottom of the sea," Rahardjo told The Associated 
Press. "Until now no human bodies have been found."
The explosion option has been dropped from a list of three crash scenarios 
that still includes possibilities that the plane suffered a catastrophic 
structural failure and broke apart at 35,000 feet, or was damaged in severe 
weather. This was the first public speculation by aviation authorities, 
reported AP
Meanwhile, President Yudhoyono on his flight back from attending the ASEAN 
Summit in Cebu, in the Philippines, made special effort to stop-over in 
Manado to speak with and console relatives of the missing plane's 
passengers. Here the President reiterated his earlier promise, that search 
efforts for the jetliner would continue until it was known what had happened 
to the passengers, and no time limit will be given to these efforts.

LCC's Safety Measures Scrutinized

With the disappearance of the Adam Air plane, public focus has returned to 
the issue of safety of Indonesian airlines, especially of the new budget 
airlines or LCC's (low cost carriers). Last year, Adam Air made headlines 
when one of its Boeing 737's went missing for hours following navigation and 
communications breakdown, eventually making an emergency landing in 
Tambolaka, a pioneer airport hundreds of miles from its final destination.

The airline had broken several civil aviation regulations that day, 
including flying the plane away from the scene before an inspection by 
aviation authorities. The pilot was fired, but government regulators would 
not say if the airline was fined, citing confidentiality regulations.
Now legislators and the public are wondering whether Indonesia's cheap-fare 
airlines cared enough about their passengers' safety?

Despite assurances that passengers' safety was their chief concern, rumours 
begun to circulate in the internet of the callous ways how Adam Air's 
management cared little about their pilots, nor about airline safety.

In response to these complaints, the government decided to step up 
enforcements of safety regulations. Aircraft ramp checks are now undertaken 
daily. Each airline now must appoint more than one official responsible for 
inspectors' ramp checks. The larger the number of aircrafts operated by an 
airline, the more this company must assign such officials.

The Department of Transportation further reminded pilots that they should 
not change flight paths en route without prior consultation with, and the 
agreement from, the corresponding traffic control tower. The Adam Air 
missing plane is reported to have changed flight paths twice to avoid bad 
weather, as heard in the tower flight recording.

Strictly Enforce International Standards on Air Safety, government urged

Subsequently, PAUKI, the non-government organization caring for airline 
safety, called on Parliament and the government to enforce international 
standards on airline safety.

In a hearing with Parliament, the Indonesia National Air Carriers 
Association (INACA) supported Parliament's proposal that Indonesia's 
airlines be audited by independent auditors following international 
standards, reported Bisnis Indonesia, while audits should be made 
periodically.  This audit should be all-encompassing, and should not only 
affect operators, but also regulators, airport  facilities, air traffic 
control management, airport administrations, the Meteorological and 
Geophysics Board as well as the National Committee for Transportation 
Safety, KNKT.

ICAO had earlier identified a number of weaknesses in Indonesia's air 
transport management, said INACA, that include organization, infrastructure 
and human resources. For instance, said Samudra Sukardi, Chairman of INACA, 
the number of inspectors at the Directorate General of Air Communication is 
far from adequate compared to the number of aircrafts and aircraft 
movements. There are only 60 inspectors to 600 aircraft units. Moreover, 
airport administrators are still too concentrated on administrative matters 
rather than ensuring flight safety. Furthermore, the accuracy of weather 
forecasts issued by BMG is still often questioned, that could endanger 
flight safety.

Secretary General of INACA, Tengku Burhanuddin, meanwhile added that 
conditions at a number of Indonesia's airports must also be improved. Some 
airports are located too close to residential areas, while landing strips 
are most often not cleared from rubber deposits of tires.

Therefore, the government together with airline companies agreed that in 
case of mishaps or accidents, the government would not only call to task the 
pilot and direct handlers of the plane but also the airline's top 
management, including its CEO, said Air Communications Director General, 
Tatang Ichsan.

Special Presidential Team to Investigate all causes behind Transport 
Accidents

In the latest development, President Yudhoyono decided to form an 
Investigation team to formulate and report on the reasons behind the spate 
of accidents involving airlines and other transportation accidents in the 
past five years.

Presidential Decree No. 3 of 2007 dated 11 January tasks the team to 
thoroughly and comprehensively evaluate conditions related to the safety of 
transportation, including its regulations, law enforcements, standards and 
safety procedures.

Comprising seven members, the team is Chaired by former Air Force Chief of 
Staff, Air Force Marshall Cheppy Hakim, with Vice Chairman Budhi Muliawan 
Suyitno, and Secretary, Navy Admiral Yayun Riyanto.  Team members include 
airline technology professor Oetario Diran, former President Director of 
aircraft construction company, PT Dirgantara, legal expert on law of the air 
Priyatna Abdurrasyid, and Secretary General of INACA, Tengku Burhanuddin.
The team is to work together and cooperate with professional organizations 
involved in the investigation of transportation accidents.
(Sources: SCTV, RCTI, Kompas, Bisnis Indonesia)                (Tuti 
Sunario)
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NEWS AND BACKGROUND:

1.      Health, Culture and the Environment:

Indonesia Bans Backyard Poultry Farming to Break Bird Flu chain

Barely two weeks into the new year and Indonesia already reported four more 
deaths from the bird flu, bringing Indonesia's total to 61 fatalities, the 
highest in the world. The four cases occurred in Jakarta and Bandung, after 
contact with infected poultry.

A limited emergency cabinet meeting was called, in which the government 
decided that the main cause for the most recent re-emergence of the bird flu 
was the uncontrolled backyard poultry farms, that did not apply strict 
standards of hygiene and health of cages and poultry. Chicken, ducks, geese 
and doves were allowed to wander freely in densely populated areas, 
endangering public health.

Local bylaws are to be issued immediately to ban backyard poultry farming 
for non-commercial purposes reared near residential sites. Farms with less 
than 20 poultry must be destroyed, for which the government will provide 
compensation to the amount of
Rp. 12,500 for every chicken or duck culled. While commercial farms with 
over 20 poultry must strictly adhere to health and hygiene regulations. This 
regulation to be valid for a period of at least six months, and must be 
applied immediately in the adjacent provinces of Jakarta, Banten and West 
Java, where the casualties occurred.

"This is already ... a situation of health emergency", said Coordinating 
Minister for Public Welfare, Aburizal Bakrie to the press "and we hope that 
the protection of humans will be much better if birds and humans are 
separated,"
"In principle, there should be no birds in residential areas," Health 
Minister, Fadillah Supari,  said, adding that regulations banning backyard 
poultry will be introduced in the three worst-hit regions of Jakarta, Banten 
and West Java, reports Antara.
"It has always been our advice to the government to separate birds and 
humans said World Health Organization representative Georg Petersen 
welcoming the move. "It is important to reduce contact between birds and 
people and restrict the raising of chicken in highly-populated areas," he 
told Agence France-Presse. "In principle this is a very good move," he said.
Questioned on Television why the government had been slow to prevent the new 
bird flu outbreak, Minister for Agriculture, Anton Apriyantono defended the 
national government, saying that clear warnings and instructions had been 
given to provincial governments in November last year to separate poultry 
from populated areas. Local governments were also warned that the onset of 
the rainy season would increase the chance of the re-emergence of the H5N1 
virus. But, following Regional Autonomy, actions should be taken by local 
governments. The National government is no longer in a position to directly 
enforce these regulations, as authority had been devolved to local 
governments.

Meanwhile in Jakarta, Governor Sutiyoso urged Jakarta's population to 
voluntarily cull backyard poultry to stop the spread of the avian flu virus, 
while awaiting the issuance of official provincial regulations.

Meantime also, more hospitals are prepared to treat more bird flu patients 
or those suspected to be infected, since the Persahabatan Hospital has 
already indicated that it was getting over its capacity. The other hospital 
readied to receive patients is the Gatot Subroto army hospital in Central 
Jakarta.

For your comments or further inquiries, please e-mail to: 
tbsc-strategy at indo.net.id