Indonesia mulls MA-60 grounding
Guest Writers are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the specific writer directly
Indonesia is considering grounding the Chinese MA-60 turboprop aircraft, following a series of recent safety incidents.
An MA-60 operated by Merpati Nusantara Airlines veered off the runway and broke up while landing at Kupang airport, West Timor, on Monday – the same day another MA-60 crashed in Myanmar.
Myanmar’s aviation authorities have now put a halt to all MA-60 flights in the country, pending an investigation, and Indonesia’s Transportation Ministry is reportedly considering similar measures.
“[Indonesia’s] Directorate General of Civil Aviation is auditing Merpati in order to get to the cause of the accident before deciding what corrective actions we should take with the airline,” Ministry of Transport spokesperson, Bambang S. Ervan, was quoted saying by the Jakarta Post.
“We will never tolerate any plane that does not comply with airworthiness principles,” he added.
The MA-60 was grounded in Indonesia in 2011 after another of Merpati’s Chinese turboprops crashed in West Papua, killing all 27 people onboard. Human error was cited as the cause of the accident, but several other airlines, including Myanma Airways, Zest Airways in the Philippines and Brazil’s TAM have also experienced problems with the MA-60.
Merpati operates the world’s largest fleet of MA-60s, with a total of 12 aircraft.
Comments are closed.