Garuda Indonesia Flight 200

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**Garuda Indonesia Flight 200**
Summary
Date	March 7, 2007
Type	Runway overshoot
Site	Adisucipto International Airport (IATA: JOG; ICAO: WARJ)
Passengers	133
Crew	7
Fatalities	22
Survivors	118
Aircraft type	Boeing 737-497
Operator	Garuda Indonesia
Tail number	PK-GZC

Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 (GA200) was the scheduled domestic passenger flight of a Boeing 737-497 operated by Garuda Indonesia between Jakarta and Yogyakarta, Indonesia.^[1] The aircraft crashed and burst into flames while landing at Adisucipto International Airport on March 7, 2007. According to the airline, 21 passengers and 1 crew member were killed; both the pilot and the co-pilot survived and were admitted to an Indonesian military hospital.^[2]

1 Aircraft
2 Garuda Indonesia
3 Flight chronology
4 Aftermath
- 4.1 Investigation
5 Change of Flight Number
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Aircraft

The aircraft was a Boeing 737-497, registered as PK-GZC, which had been operated by three airlines, including Aloha Airlines, Star Europe and Jet Airways.^[3] The aircraft had a total of 35,157 airframe hours and 37,328 cycles since its first flight on 5 November 1992.^[4]

[edit] Garuda Indonesia

Main article: Garuda Indonesia

Garuda Indonesia was recently noted for its improved safety, having not had a major accident for the past decade.^[5]The oldest airline in Indonesia (founded in 1949),^[6] Garuda Indonesia has received a number of criticisms recently. According to Australian aviation experts, Garuda Indonesia has one of the worst safety records among the world's national carriers.^[7] Since 1950, Garuda Indonesia has had 14 major accidents with the most recent in 1997, when Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 crashed 18 miles off Medan Airport in Sumatra, killing all 234 passengers.^[7] 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 thunderstorms and other forms of inclement weather.^[7]

[edit] Flight chronology

The Flight GA200 originated in Jakarta and was carrying 133 passengers, 19 of whom were foreigners.^[1] Several Australian journalists were on the flight, covering the visit of Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock to Java.^[8]

At approximately 7 am local time (UTC+7), while attempting to land at Adisucipto International Airport, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 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.^[5] 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.^[9] 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.^[10] The fire may have been ignited from the nose landing gear after its wheels were snapped off, which were found later on the runway.^[11]

The pilot, Captain Muhammad Marwoto Komar, claimed that there was a sudden downdraft immediately before the flight landed, and that the flaps on the aircraft may have malfunctioned.^[12]

[edit] Aftermath

One of the passengers was a cameraman for the Australian Seven Network. 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.^[2]^[13] Australian Federal Police agents Brice Steele and Mark Scott, Australian Embassy staffers Liz O'Neill (public relations officer) and Allison Sudradjat (Minister Counsellor and Senior Representative of AusAID)^[14], and Australian Financial Review newspaper journalist Morgan Mellish were among those killed.^[15]

[edit] Investigation

Australia was heavily involved in the investigation in which the Australian Federal Police disaster victim identification experts were deployed to the scene to assist with the identification of bodies.^[16] Australian Transport Safety Bureau staff assisted at the scene by inspecting the wreckage to attempt to piece together a picture of the incident. The "black box" recorders consisting of a flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder 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.^[16] The United States' National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team to assist in the investigation, including representatives from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration.^[17] Staff in Australia could not read the cockpit voice recorder of the black box, which has therefore been 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.^[who?] According to the pilots, a huge gust of wind was responsible for the disaster, while witnesses said that the plane came faster than normal speed during landing. Police are said to also 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,".^[18]

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 live up 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, not living up to global safety standards.^[19]

On 17 March 2007, new evidence from the flight data recorder indicated that wing flaps on the plane were not extended for landing.^[20] 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,^[21] but other reports said there was no evidence for this.^[22]

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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 pilot could have been trying to save fuel due to a new fuel conservation bonus scheme recently introduced by Garuda Airlines.^[23]

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 redo the approach to the runway.^[24]

On 4 February 2008 the pilot, Captain Marwoto Komar, was arrested and charged with six counts of manslaughter.^[25]^[26]

[edit] 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 (leave) Jakarta at around 6.15 AM (the first flight out of Jakarta bound for Yogyakarta)